Guardian of Hope
by TheWriterChick89
Summary: AU. The year is 2138, and Earth is fighting a losing battle. It's up to Sakura, her overbearing brother, and the hot leader of a rebellion movement to keep a secret that can save humanity alive ... in the form of a toddler. S S. WARN: Language Thruout!
1. July 31, 2132

Hello All! Aikouchan here with a brief explanation.

I originally wrote this story from a dream that I had a few weeks before I posted it. It was odd, random, and I don't really recall what I ate before I slept to cause such a thing! (If I knew I'd eat it every night! LoL) Regardless, i wrote the dream out (substituting myself for Sakura ... everyone else in the dream was a CCS character already! Go figure!) and while I intended to keep it a oneshot, my brain just kept expanding and expanding on it ... to this!

Luckily, you guys get to read version 2.0 - the first write-up was quite bad, and considering i'm in getting an Applied Degree in Professional Writing, I oughta show what I've learned right? So here's the start of it all, seven years before the chapter that I "dreamed" came up .... ENJOY!

SETTING: 120-ish years from now. Earth has become a thriving metropolis. Most people still travel by car or plane, but Ford, Honda etc. have developed airships, meant to soar above the atmosphere to cross distances easily (basically, it's a spaceship. I just wanna make it sound ... well less cheesy, hehe.) There are no stupid futuristic clothes or anything odd like that; not much has changed from the present, 2009, to now, in 2132 ....

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July 31, 2132

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New York City, newly dubbed the World Capital, was the hub of technology, arts, science, fashion and culture. It grew accordingly with the passing centuries, so much that the standard slum still had air conditioning, satellite television and robotic vacuums in all the houses. On the higher end of town, the richest families or the highest on the political pyramid had skyscrapers to call their home. Shining against the bright sunlight the white buildings stood, proud and clean in their environment.

Inside one of the tallest buildings, belonging to the Governor of World Security, a girl was sleeping in her white bed, in her white room, in total peaceful darkness, until the drapes were thrown open and the brilliant blue sky added to the colors.

The ten-year-old winced, pulling the covers farther over her head, despite the tsks from her nanny.

The middle aged woman walked over to the bed. "Now, now, Mistress Sakura," she scolded. "Be cooperative. Today's a big day for you! Your father and your brother giving their speeches at the meeting! And their friends are coming over to watch it on our transmitter. You're supposed to play host like a good girl!" she took hold of the covers above her head.

"_I don't wanna geh-up_," the kid mumbled groggily.

The maid grinned, using well-practiced techniques. "Yukito's going to be there, too," she said slyly.

Sakura sat up straight; eyes wide open, she looked at her frantically. "Did I miss it?!" she yelped.

The maid laughed and took the girl's hand. "No, no, of course not. Now come along, dear. You need to take a shower and get dressed."

Sakura nodded, and allowed her to be taken through her regular morning routine; bathed with the help of her maids, and then put into a pretty, light pink sundress while one of the older girls did her hair. After that she went out into the main room of the house, where the entire south wall was windows, curving up into the middle of the ceiling, and she ate her breakfast while being reminded of her duties that day.

This was all she ever knew. Her father, Fujitaka, Governor of World Security, had been elected into the position about eight years ago, and they got upgraded into the highest class of society – politics. She was supposed to be the cute, innocent daughter of the politician – and that's exactly what she was. There had never been a war in her entire lifetime, or her older brother Touya's, and her father's job was incredibly easy and peaceful. There were balls every other week, or luncheons and trips to embassy's in exotic locals … it was a beautiful life.

Last year, an unknown race landed on the Earth. They were tall, and their language was odd. A few months of hospitality later, a scholar came forward with the answers. The race was called Pymetrian, and according to records of the ancient texts, they were the inhabitants of the Earth during the prehistoric era. They left the Earth when threats of an Ice Age broke out. Speaking to the aliens in their language proved that this was true.

The scholar's name was Eriol Hiiragizawa, a nineteen year old assistant to her father, that was given the important duty of being the Ambassador to the Pymetrians during their stay.

That stay had been longer than expected, but Sakura's father wasn't worried. He was in charge of this whole discovery, looking after every little detail; where they stayed, if they would be protected against any punks from the slums, or if they needed anything. Eriol was constantly over at the house, and Sakura had gotten to know him pretty well. She even kissed him on the cheek once; she thought it was the right thing to do, since all the girls in her class said she was lucky because he was so cute and that they would do the same thing in her position … sometimes more.

Last month, Eriol suddenly announced that the Pymetrians wanted to hold a press conference for the world, and he would be their interpreter. They didn't say what they wanted to discuss to the planet, and they wouldn't tell Eriol. Her father agreed, saying we shouldn't deny something they want. Eriol didn't come around that often afterwards – she hadn't seen him for at least three weeks.

And today, just a few days after Touya (recently turned 18) was named Head General of the World Special Forces, him and his father had to be at the conference, along with the President of the Earth and other dignitaries and officials.

Fujitaka himself invited those who were not given the extremely exclusive invitation to the event to watch the proceedings on his uncensored transmitter in his home. They were all gentlemen in their old age and extremely concerned with politics, but they were all familiar with Sakura, so there wouldn't be a problem.

The night before her father had sat her down, telling her not to be worried by anything the men said, and to be on her best behavior. She had agreed eagerly, always happy to help her dad with his work.

By eleven thirty a few of the politicians began arriving. Some of them asked how her summer had been so far. Others told her how their children wanted to go on another horseback ride with her. And a few joked with her about her daddy's habits.

By quarter to, the room was filled. The maids and the butler were walking around, offering hors d'ovures and glasses of champagne.

At noon the room was silent as the butler turned the transmitter on. A three-by-four spread of the windows blocked out the sun behind it, and crackled to life. On the screen was the image of the World Conference Center, just in the downtown of NYC, filled with people and camera crews of local news stations. The view of her screen was a direct feed for government use; half the screen was on the stage for the Pymetrians, and the other half was focused on the World Representative table, where some people had already begun to sit.

Sakura spotted her father and her brother on the left of the President. She smiled, sitting down on the couch beside a white-haired dignitary. _This is nice,_ she thought. _For once, people can see my daddy and them having a nice conversation._

To Touya's right was the man that made her sigh – Yukito Tsukishiro. He was two years younger than Touya, but they still stood the same in height. His handsome face smiled every time he spoke, and his amber eyes gleamed behind his glasses. His white blond hair shone in the spotlight, and he was looking even more dashing in a black suit. He was a perfectly well brought up young man.

Sakura let out a sigh that would've come from a Southern Belle, resting her head in the palms of her hands. The man sitting beside her heard this and smiled at her.

"So, Mr. Tsukishiro is your betrothed, am I right?"

Sakura sat up straight, embarrassed that she forgot her manners around the guests. She nodded and smiled. "Yes, sir."

"And obviously having your husband picked out doesn't bother you?"

Sakura blinked, honestly shocked. "No! Why would it?"

The man laughed heartily, and some of the surrounding guests grinned at her innocence. He patted her shoulder. "You should be grateful, child – that boy has a bright future ahead of him. He'll make a wonderful husband."

She still wondered why he was telling her all this. "I know!" she said with a smile.

The men laughed again until the sound of a gavel being hit came from the screen. The room went silent, along with the conference hall.

The speaker on the intercom announced, "_Presenting the Honorable President Anderson, and our guests, the Pymetrians with interpreter Eriol Hiiragizawa_."

The "guests" walked onstage – and Sakura gasped.

She had never seen a Pymetrian before in her life. She never expected them to be tall, dark looking creatures. She gulped and her smile was gone. There was nothing to smile about while looking at them. Looking out the corner of her eye proved that no one else in the room was smiling either. But when Eriol walked onto the stage, she smiled again.

But he wasn't smiling. He looked stressed, and hesitant about the whole ordeal. He fumbled with his glasses constantly. Same for her father, brother, and Yukito. They all looked like they were attending a funeral. She frowned and tilted her head. What was going on?

The President of the World spoke into the microphone in front of him. _"All right, sirs. You have my attention. What is it?"_

The Pymetrian at the middle of the table stood up, positioning himself as the leader. They were all wearing masks, so she couldn't tell where their mouths were. But he spoke. And the sound was so strange and terrifying she covered her ears with a yelp.

Eriol watched the leader, listening to his speech, and interpreted it a moment later. _" 'We have been here for months and you continue to ignore our requests. When are you going to listen to us?'"_

"_I can answer that."_ Fujitaka stood, addressing the leader._ "Every wish and want that you've told Mr. Hiiragizawa to tell us has been fulfilled, sir. We've been as hospitable as possible. Is there something we missed? If so, why hold a huge conference just to announce that?"_

"_And who said we had to listen to you in the first place?"_ the president intervened.

The whole room winced. Someone near the back whispered to a colleague, "Anderson's never been the most tactful, has he?"

"Idiot," another commented.

After translating the response, the Pymetrians let out something that everyone could understand – a growl. There was a shaking noise that filled the room, and everyone looked over their shoulders. The maid was holding a tray of tarts, and the cups were causing a noise as her hands shook. She noticed their stares and set the tray down, apologizing profusely. "I-I'm sorry, sirs. Those … creatures … just disturb me."

"Perfectly all right, m'lady," the man beside Sakura said.

The leader suddenly began shouting at Eriol, causing a few gasps to come out from the audience at the conference, as well as from Sakura. She watched Eriol's face intently, her heart beginning to race. This isn't what was supposed to happen at all. Why are they so angry? What's going on? Why am I feeling so scared? Should I be?

Eriol's eyes widened, and his jaw dropped open as the Pymetrian continued to ramble on and on, and when he finally finished, Eriol sat shocked for a moment. Then, he cleared his throat, narrowing his eyes at the leader. He said one more thing, and Eriol frowned.

Sakura gulped. _What's he doing? What's going on?_

Eriol cleared his throat and said lifelessly into the microphone. _" 'Why? Why should you listen to us? Because you maggots wouldn't even be alive if we hadn't caused the Earth to be reborn. You Ungrateful Scum Of The Earth Dare To Talk To Us, The Assistors Of Your Creation, Like Some Bad Guests At One Of Your Esteemed Dinner Parties? We request military supplies and you deny us that. We request maps of the entire world and population scales, and you deny us that as well. What Makes You Think You're In Charge? What Makes You Think You Should Be The Ones Giving Orders?'"_

The room gasped in shocked several times at this speech. Sakura clapped her hands to her mouth, watching with wide eyes. This wasn't going peaceful at all. Nobody's supposed to be angry at each other –

Fujitaka looked alarmed at the statement. Yukito's eyebrows had drawn together in worry, and Touya almost looked murderous … as almost as if he knew this would happen. He had been a lot tenser lately, whenever talks of the press conference arose … but before he could get too graphic around Sakura, their father always hushed him. Was this what Touya worried about?

Eriol glanced back at the leader, drawing in a shuddered breath, before speaking once more with his eyes closed, as if he couldn't dare look at his fellow humans.

" 'We – Our true intention is south of your border. While you've been partying and enjoying your so-called-high-society-lives, we've been invading the South Americas, Australia and Half of Russia. In the last month they've been declared Pymetrian Territory, and now it is time to say that we are taking back was is rightfully ours… We Declare…" He paused. His voice had broken at the end of the sentence, but the leader shrieked at him once again. Eriol closed his eyes, refusing to stare at any of them. " we declare War With Earth.'"

Screams echoed throughout the conference room. Most of the dignitaries got to their feet, and the President's secret service was at his side at once. On the other side of the screen, a few champagne glasses broke as they crashed to the floor. They watched chaos soon break out, as the Pymetrians got up, and hurried as fast as they could off the stage … and Eriol followed them.

After watching a few moments of screaming, a politician hurried forward and shut the transmitter off.

"That Son Of A Bitch!!" one of the men shouted.

"He's been working with them all along!"

"I'm willing to bet my life that he gave information to those aliens!"

"He betrayed Fujitaka, then! He took advantage of him!!"

"He betrayed all of us! As of this moment, he's accused of Treason!"

"How could they have gotten to South American and Australia without us knowing?!"

"The same reason they said, Arnold," the man on the couch said, and all quieted to listen to him. He stood up, and spoke gravely. "We were too busy enjoying what we thought was a perfect life to notice that our guests may have been a threat. We assumed everything would be alright, and now it isn't."

In the distance they heard a low rumble – from the room, they could see downtown, to the conference center. A large spaceship was taking off and heading south – the Pymetrians were heading back to work.

"Gentleman," the man announced again. "At this time I think the appropriate place to be is with our families. We should all head home."

The men nodded, and thanked the maids for their services, and began to leave. One man went up to the elder and said, "Sir, what about you?"

"I'm very close to here; I'll wait with the girl for her father to get home."

The younger nodded, and headed out. The room was as silent as it was that morning, but the cheer and happiness was drained.

"I … I thought we were getting along."

The older man looked down at the girl sadly. Tears were streaming down her face, and her eyes were wide. She was hiccupping softly. "I … I thought it was all going fine."

He sighed and sat down next to her, hugging her around the shoulders. "We thought so too, my dear. Sometimes things go wrong and we can't stop that from happening. And we get too overconfident that things are going to be okay, and it ends up hurting us in the end."

"But … Eriol … he was my friend."

The man bit his lip, feeling a tad angrier with the boy than before. "I'm sorry about that, dear. No one suspected it, and looks can be deceiving sometimes. You're used to being around people that love and care for you … but the harsh reality is that the earth is cruel and unkind." He cleared his throat and tried to cheer her up. "But don't worry; your father and brother will be home shortly. They're smart – they'll head home."

But Sakura didn't want them to come home. For the first time since she was four, she wanted something much, much more desperately.

" … I want my mommy."

The man's eyes widened at this, and he looked at the maid, who was on the verge of tears from the statement. Never, not once since she was born had she asked for her mother … who had died giving birth to her.

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TBC

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	2. March 8, 2135

REVISED EDITION  
Chapter 3

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March 8, 2135

(aka Two years Later … )

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Focusing on her schoolwork was hard to do when such important discussions were occurring on the opposite side of her door. She kept finding herself resting her head in her hands and staring at the faded white of her room, listening to the voices and hearing things most fourteen-year-olds would hear.

In the last two years her father's home had been turned into the Security Headquarters. Out of the fifteen floors of the skyscraper, seven were devoted to battle plans and strategic maneuvering. Another five were for central intelligence and communications. Two were for dignitaries that had lost their homes in battles. And the final floor was the least occupied, holding her family and Yukito. But nonetheless, there was a lot of office work that happened at their dinning room table every night.

Not to mention the bubbliness that was Sakura has been popped. Teenagers alone are depressing – but in her position and the environment she had to live with, her self-esteem and hope for the world had diminished. When the war was declared, she was horded by reporters wanting her to leak information from her father to the press. Students in school were just as bad. After saying "no comment" so much she decided that everything in her life would have no comment. She lost her opinions and points of view on the world. While the kids around her grew older and started talking about their rich and powerful fathers and their ideas for battle plans, Sakura had to ignore them and try to work on her schooling.

Still, every once in a while, she got interested. And the guy on the other side of the door was making a lot of sense.

" …_so Pymetrians are even earlier stages of Neanderthals?"_

"_Exactly. According to ancient texts, Neanderthals came into existence post-Ice Age. The Pymetrians claimed they were around during the dinosaurs. My guess is that they ruled over our early Neanderthals, and when they Ice Age came about, they decided to leave and their slaves would stay behind and be wiped out."_

"_But they survived?"_

"_Precisely!"_

_I can't take this anymore. Anything's better than Advanced Chemistry. _She pushed herself off the bed, grabbing her used glass as her alibi (refill on hot chocolate). Before she left the room she pulled on her sweatpants, and tugged at her camisole. She may only be thirteen, but she was still conscientious of her appearance … considering who was in the next room. Finally, she opened her bedroom door and walked down the hall to the kitchen.

The main rooms light consisted to that of the kitchen and the dining room table. Most of the drapes had been pulled on the ceiling-windows, and through a small crack she could see the lights of the city shining through. The war was on, yes, but there was nothing that could kill New York City. It was still alive with life and culture … unfortunately she could not take part in it.

A man she barely remembered was present. He had a head full of curly bright orange hair, and glasses covering his blue eyes. He looked a tad nerdy, but very intelligent. He was standing next to the table, his blazer laying on the back of his chair, his work sleeves pushed up and his necktie loosened. Either way, he still looked like a full out professor.

Her father sat across from him. In the last few years, he had lost a lot of his spark. All of his duties and the stress of his work were catching up to him, much to Sakura's disappointment. He looked as if he had gained ten years on his life.

Touya, on the other hand, seemed to have been born to work out battle plans, and security measures and all things manly. He sat intently next to his father, listening to the professor give his speech. Sakura knew he hated talking about the enemy. He'd rather go out there and nuke them all. It was things like that, which made her feel like she had lost touch with her brother.

And Yukito … he was sitting next to the professor … and Sakura grinned, hoping he would notice her as she entered the kitchen. He did. He was nineteen now, which only made him look hotter in her eyes. The girls at school all envied Sakura for being betrothed to him already, therefore taking him off the dating market. Yes, he was six years his senior, but when she was eighteen (the year they were to marry) he'd be twenty-four and it wouldn't seem as harsh. Unlike the rest of the men she knew, the stress of war didn't affect his features. In fact, he was one of the few men she knew that still smiled, even if most of them were sad.

Whenever he saw her, his smile was genuine. Like right then, when he watched her fill her cup with the hotly brewed drink from the kettle on the countertop, and breath in the scent. When she exhaled, she noticed his gaze on her and blushed. She returned the smile as the guest went on.

"…But the Pymetrians had gone so far away from Earth that they didn't know that. They thought all that was left was a snow covered, barren wasteland."

"So why the hell would they come back?" Touya asked.

"Because they feel they have a right over it."

The rest of the men at the table looked up at her. She felt a little put on the spot from the direct attention, but she continued. Clearing her throat, she spoke. "They probably believe in the rule that the first people there are the ones that rule, which most of us believe. They believe they were the first people on earth, and they very well could've been," she added quickly when she saw Touya's mouth open to retort. "So when they found out that Earth wasn't so barren and gone to waste as they had thought, they wanted to take it back … Since it wasn't damaged goods anymore."

The man smiled and nodded. "Exactly what she said." He took his glasses off for a moment to clean them on his shirt. "How do you have such a good grasp on this?"

Sakura shrugged. "It's been the topic of many Social Studies essays, sir," she answered.

Fujitaka frowned a bit. "Sakura, I thought you were studying."

Her face frowned and she walked over to them. "Sorry, daddy. I was. But there's only so much studying a girl can take." She leaned down and hugged her father with her free arm. He only smiled and grasped her arm, squeezing it gently.

Yukito spoke up and said, "Sakura, you remember Professor Burns. He's the Scientist from Oxford that we hired."

"Oh yeah," she said, straightening up-

"Our Eriol replacement," Touya said bitterly.

The room went _really _quiet after that. But Sakura rolled her eyes and admitted, "Well, it's kind of true. But I think you know more about Pymetrians than he did."

Prof. Burns raised his eyebrows. "So do you, it seems. You knew him?" he asked, unaware that the other two men in the room rarely talked about the man. Eriol was basically a taboo topic under this roof but how was Prof. Burns supposed to know that?

Sakura eyed her two boys carefully before answering as lightly as possible. "Yeah, he used to come here all the time to work with my dad. That bastard," she muttered the last part under her breath, but her father still heard.

Fujitaka frowned at her. "Sakura!" he said sternly.

She dramatically threw her arms out, trying to act innocent. "What?! He Is! He Stole My First Kiss On The Cheek!!"

This got a few chuckles at her over dramatization, and it lightened the mood a bit, thankfully. Yukito's smile towards her widened a bit, and she blushed even more, but tried to focus on other things. "So, Professor, how's the research going?" she asked.

"Good, actually," he leaned forward on the table. "A few weeks ago we had some Pymetrian victims of a battle brought in, and I was able to get some skin samples. Their DNA structure is amazing. I don't know how they survived on this planet the first time around. But I'm close to finding something we can use against them."

"What, by poison?" Yukito asked, and when Prof. Burns nodded, Sakura smirked. "Well, Congratulations, Touya. You finally get to nuke them."

Touya stuck his tongue out at his sister, and she started to walk back to her room, saying, "I'll let you guys get back to work – Oh!" She whipped around, suddenly remembering her first encounter with the professor. "Your wife was expecting last time I met you! How is she?"

Prof. Burns smiled. "I've got a two year old baby boy. We named him Kero."

Sakura inhaled sharply. "Oo, has it been that long? … well, mozel tov anyways!" she said, waving a hand at them before returning to her room. She sipped on her hot chocolate, realizing that was a horribly unsmooth way to react, but whatever.

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Attempting to study proved to be a waste of time. She knew the material pretty well – or she could just wing her test tomorrow. After throwing her books back into her bag and changing into a camisole and pajama bottoms, she pulled back the drapes of her room before crawling into her bed and staring out at the city lights.

They were still as glamorous as they were years ago. Every single twinkling and moving spot mesmerized her and it was always something she enjoyed watching. It really calmed her down when she kept worrying about being in such a power spot in life. Staring at the lights made her seem … insignificant, in the grand scheme of things. It made her realize how it could be much worse. She could be the daughter of the Vice President, or President even. Her position was one of the safest in the city.

Then why did she feel so scared and alone all the time?

The family never went out for Sunday picnics anymore. There were never any dinners together at all. TV didn't hold cartoons and romantic comedies like it used to; instead, it was always stories about the latest shooting or killing or mass battle in which the human side greatly lost. The latest string of stories were reports of a kid her age going around killing people. Mostly Pymetrians, but some humans too. Nobody knows what side he works for, but he's still becoming a feared assassin.

When she was a kid, there was always something to look forward to.

How can she look forward when everything that comes along was tragic?

Her nose began to burn and her vision blurred when tears formed in her eyes. She laid her head in her arms and began to cry silently –

– until someone knocked on the door.

She whipped her head up to stare at the door, before diving across her bed at her night stand. She grabbed a few sheets of tissue and blotted her eyes, while someone called her name quietly. Whoever it was probably thought she was asleep. "Come in!" she answered, hoping the darkness would hide her red eyes. Before the door opened she stuffed the Kleenex under her sheets.

To her surprise, Yukito came in, his brown blazer draped over his arm. His white dress shirt had the first few buttons undone, and he was missing a tie. Even though barely any of his chest was being shown, she still blushed. Nothing was more handsome to her than a man in a simple white dress shirt.

Slowly, he walked up to her bed. "Your father and Touya are showing Mr. Burns out – then heading back to the labs. They're expecting me, so I don't have much time."

Sakura blinked and tilted her head. "What's wrong?"

Yukito smiled at her and sat on the edge of the bed. "Nothing … just something you said tonight."

She blinked some more. "What did I say?" she asked. Had she said something stupid? Was it the mozel tov comment?

"The thing about hating Eriol for taking your first cheek-kiss."

Sakura was puzzled. Of all the things she thought he wanted to talk about, this was the one she hadn't expected. She bit her lip for a moment and looked down at her hands, as her fingernail picked at the aging fabric absentmindedly. "Um," she started, talking quietly. "It's true. And I was saying it to joke around. It doesn't really bug me that much – "

"I just want to make sure you don't lose your _real_ first kiss to someone that'll betray you."

Sakura looked up to see that he had leaned forward a lot while she was mumbling. She had never been this near to him before. Her heartbeat instantly quickened, and she could feel the heat rising to her face. "Oh," was all she could get out.

Yukito's smile was gone, his amber eyes staring calmly into her wide emerald irises. Raising one hand, he tenderly touched her cheek. She thought she was going to faint at that moment. She closed her eyes and tilted her head into his hand, marveling at the feeling of his fingers on her skin.

"I'll never turn my back on you, Sakura," he whispered to her.

She stared up at him as his face drew closer, his forehead resting against hers. Her breath was coming out in pants, and she prayed to god she wouldn't get sick.

"I know," she whispered back.

Yukito smiled once more, before leaning forward and pressing his lips against hers. She was inexperienced in this department, but he was patient, slow and gentle to her. All she could feel was the soft texture of his mouth against hers, and she closed her eyes and shivered from the feeling.

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TBC

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	3. December 12, 2137

REVISED EDITION  
Chapter 4

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December 12th, 2137

(two years later)

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" … so, due to their nitrogen based cells, their common poison would be Selenium. And if you follow the pattern that we do to match Carbon – organisms like ourselves – to our most common poison, arsenic."

The board room was entirely silent, every body watching the large projected image intently. Everyone from scientists to students of the facility to dignitaries to Sakura Kinomoto was there, watching Professor Burns talk at the podium. This was the latest of his seminars, an idea the government had suggested to educate the public on the enemy.

It had been two years since her last encounter with the man, and much had changed since then. Firstly, her bother had commanded the Earth forces in two of the most historic battles of the war to date. He came out of them with a broken arm and a few busted ribs, but he survived. Still, the stress of him being out on the battlefield had aged her emotionally.

But physically, she was a more mature fifteen year old. Her body had started to develop some curves, and her face was growing gracefully into that of a woman's. Boys at school were constantly trying to go out with her, ignoring the fact that she had a fiancé, and she was growing tired of having to turn them down. The thing is, they were only going for her because of her looks. She didn't consider herself alarmingly pretty, but she was above quite a few girls in her class. Otherwise, she felt her personality had dulled in the last five years, so much that it was almost nonexistent. Therefore, she determined that the guys were only after her outer beauty, and also determined that they were all scum.

Hiding her emotions became a bad habit. As a child, she displayed her happiness and sadness and fear and joy for the world to see whenever she wanted to. Now, she figured the less feelings she showed, the less they would get hurt. She simply focused on her studies, excelled on essays and papers, and started to delve into her newest hobby – legal jargon.

As Professor Burns took a break after speaking, she said loudly for the room to hear, "But Selenium is nonexistent on Earth, isn't it?"

The Professor squinted from the light of the projector, but smiled when he saw who was speaking. "Yes, that's what we know. I believe that there are still some supplies up in the abandoned parts of Canada. That's the only part of my research that's incomplete."

"So, we find selenium, we can kill them off?" one of the students asked.

"Precisely."

"But how does it effect us humans? Is it deadly to us as well?"

"I thought that, at first," Prof. Burns said, pacing the stage while picking the remote of the projector out of his pocket. "But after looking back into the old articles, I discovered that humans once used selenium in something for everyday use."

Clicking the projector caused a slide to appear, displaying the image of a large shampoo bottle. " 'Head And Shoulders', ladies and gentleman, was a shampoo to cure dandruff. The active ingredient was selenium." He grinned out at the crowd. "If our ancestors used selenium every day to relieve hair issues, I'm sure we'll survive."

A small laugh came out from the crowd, and Sakura couldn't help but grin from her position on the edge of the dark room. The answer to the world's problems – Dandruff shampoo.

Then, from the table right in front of the podium reserved for dignitaries, Sakura saw her father stand up. "Thank you, Professor Burns. I think it's safe to say that you'll get the money needed to continue your research."

The crowd began to applaud, and then file out of the room. Sakura went with the crowd until she reached the hallway, waiting around for her father to approach the door. Once he met up with her, he gave her a tight hug.

"He's doing a great job, don't you think?" he asked as they left the room, and entered the white hallways of the World Conference Center. It was snowing, but the sky was only light grey, and the ground was only covered in a small blanket of snow.

She nodded as they walked together, nodding at officials that they knew as they passed, and she said, "He's amazing. I think I might want to help him with his work."

The smile from his face disappeared when she said this. He frowned, and shook his head. "No, Sakura, I can't allow you to do that. What you know about it may seem exciting and adventurous, but what he's doing is a great risk to himself and his family. He's under constant security and can't even leave his house except for important occasions such as this. I don't want you to get involved in that."

She frowned right back at him. "Then at least let me do something, Dad!" she urged. "It's driving me nuts watching you do all your work, and Touya working with the army, and all I can do is stand by and do nothing! I want to get involved! I've been doing amazing in all my subjects, and I even took up defense training-"

"Sakura! A girl shouldn't be in a course like that!"

"I Don't Care, Dad-"

She grabbed his arm, causing him to stop. With a pleading look in her eyes, she stared up at him for a moment. She was suddenly aware that they were arguing amongst many students, especially when one almost ran into her while laughing loudly. She swallowed her pride and looked up at him, pleading, "I want to help."

Fujitaka looked down at his daughter, realizing how fast she was growing up. He couldn't remember the number of times he told her to slow down and enjoy her life as a kid. The problem was that she never could – she was hounded by the media and always exposed to the growing threats of the Pymetrians and the issues inside the government. She had lost her innocence, and there was no way to get that back.

He patted her on the head, and told her, "I'm sorry, Sakura. There's nothing I can do."

Just then his pager went off, and he pulled it off his belt, reading the caller id. Cursing under his breath, he let go of her and said, "I've got to go – I'll see you at dinner, alright? Here," fishing through his pocket, he pulled out a plastic card. "Have a decent meal at the dignitary lounge for lunch. They'll take my ID card."

Without another word, he walked in a hurried pace down the hallway. She stared at his back for a moment. Once again, left behind …

8-------8

Having nothing else to do, she headed upstairs to the dignitary lounge on the 23rd floor. It was the only first class restaurant left in the city; business had started to go under when the demand for soldiers grew high. Local economy was swaying, but there was enough in the government treasury to provide meals for everyone.

The waiter at the entrance graciously accepted her father's ID card, and took her into the dining room. It was only ten thirty in the morning, so there were only a few politicians around. Two younger men were sitting at the bar, and one older man was asleep at his chair.

The waiter sat her by the window and she ordered her favorite (teriyaki stir fry) and once the waiter returned with her iced tea, she played the waiting game.

Sipping on the sweet drink calmed her down, although she was barely aware of being angry. Her father's persistence to keep her out of harm's way was starting to annoy her, even though she knew he was just trying to be protective. But she was outright bored. It was driving her nuts. Nightmares of dying the next day after living the life she lived scared her more than the thought of simply dying. If she didn't survive this war, she at least wanted to go in a way she could be proud of. Being a bodyguard, maybe. Or a scientist with the secrets to save the universe. It was very tempting to shave her head and try to join the army as a boy, but she knew that Touya would spot her eventually and ship her back home to their father.

She stared out the window at the city below. The sky was covered in light grey clouds as small flakes of snow fell upon the buildings, looking whiter than before because of the fluffy blanket of precipitation that covered them. It looked so pure and clean … it made it so hard to believe that a battle was probably occurring just a thousand miles away. The enemy had gained a lot of ground recently. Texas, New Mexico, California and Alabama were all named enemy territory as of last week …

"You're looking glum."

She jerked out of her daze and saw Yukito standing beside her table. The sight of him put a smile on her face. "Oh! Hi – I thought you had work today?"

He grinned and sat down across from her, laying his briefcase on the table. Slouching back in his chair as he loosened his tie, he said, "One of my meetings got cancelled, and I passed your father on the way up. He said you'd be here."

"Don't I feel special," she said cheekily, grinning right back.

Yukito raised an eyebrow slyly, before leaning forward and giving her a small kiss on the lips. She closed her eyes and relished the taste for a moment. They pulled back when a waiter came forward, taking Yukito's order, and then bringing him a light beer. She frowned as she watched him take a swig from the bottle. "Bad day?" she asked.

Yukito blinked as he set the drink down. "No – why do you ask?"

"Isn't it a little early to be drinking?"

"It's the only stuff that keeps me awake lately, that's all. I've suddenly become immune to coffee."

She bit her lip and looked out the window to avoid his gaze, and didn't know what to say. Thankfully, he filled the awkward silence.

"So," he started. "Touya tells me you've been anxious lately."

Looking back at him, she narrowed her eyes in question. "Why does he say that?"

Yukito shrugged. "You tell me."

Sakura shrugged right back. "I don't know … I'm just so bored."

"He says you want to join the army."

"If you know why do you ask me to tell you?" she said, slightly annoyed.

Yukito sighed, setting his drink down again, before leaning forward against the table. "Sakura," he said quietly and tenderly. He raised a hand up and grazed her cheek with his fingertips, causing her to blush. "You are all that Fujitaka, Touya and I have left. We just don't want to lose you. Do you understand that?"

Feeling guilty of her selfishness, she nodded. But she couldn't ignore that selfishness completely. "I'm sorry – I just need something to do. I'm so sick of being at home all time."

"What about friends from school? You and some girls could go to that spa downtown for a weekend-"

"I don't have any friends."

When he looked surprised to hear this, she elaborated. "Can't trust anybody anymore, after that one chick came for a sleepover at my house. It was a year or two ago, remember? Her dad was a reporter?"

"Oh yeah," he said sadly. "The Scandal of '35."

"Besides, our security would be paranoid about anybody I bring up. And anybody I bring up just wants my money or my information or my ass."

Yukito blinked in confusion, and she smiled at this. "Boys, Yukito. You've got competition."

He chuckled lightly and whispered, "No, I don't, because you're mine already."

She blushed a bit at this sudden claim he had on her – until a loud ringing noise filled the air.

The sleeping gentleman woke up abruptly snorting. The two guys at the bar swiveled in their chairs to look for the sound. Yukito realized that it was his phone. Digging it out of his pocket, he told Sakura, "Excuse me," and opened it right there. "Hello?"

Sakura went back to looking out the window. _I guess I should get used to it,_ she thought. _I'm going to be his wife one day …He'll be on the phone more often than now …_

"What?! … you're kidding. Okay. I'll turn it on now."

Flipping the phone shut, he suddenly got out of his chair and weaved around chairs to the bar. In a single leap he hopped over the counter and reached his arm up to the transmitter controls, flipping it on. Sakura semi got out of her seat and exclaimed, "Yukito, What-?!"

"-_I repeat, The North American Assassin Has Been Apprehended!"_

Sakura gaped. What?!

"_Just moments ago, eyewitnesses observed the maneuvering of the Earth Special Forces as they found the boy in a local restaurant. He was arrested and immediately brought to the holding facilities of the World Conference Center. He is being interrogated at we speak."_

"Dear God!" The older gentleman exclaimed.

"Holy Shit," one of the younger men said.

Sakura watched in awe as she saw a struggle of the police being shown on screen. She could hear the shouts of a boy, but couldn't see him in all the chaos.

"_His charges include murder of two peacekeepers in California, along with another long list of murders of humans. Rumor has it that he's also done away with a greater number of Pymetrians, but that has yet to be confirmed."_

Yukito cursed under his breath, and then ran back to the table. Grabbing his suitcase as he finished off his beer, he said to her, "Sorry, I've got to go. I might stop by for dinner tonight." And he dashed out of the room.

Sakura stared at the door where his retreating back had just exited through. Once again left behind … but she refused to accept that this time. She stood up, thinking, "Like hell I'm missing out on action that's right under my fingertips!"

8--------8

Finding where they held the "assassin" wasn't as hard as most people think it would be. During the boring hours of her father's meetings when she was young, she wandered the hallways of the Conference Center and knew them like the back of her hand. The south wing was reserved for criminal justice, and in the past, she had never been able to get past security.

But this time around, she had her father's ID card.

Swiping it through the lock on the door, she grinned when it beeped in response and opened for her. Slipping past, she began to run down the hallways, searching for some kind of sign of movement. Most of the time when she was looking for trouble, there were reporters to follow or police cars to tag behind. In the south wing, though, press and simple military surveillance were checkpoints she got past ages ago. Unfortunately, while it meant she didn't have to deal with paparazzi, she had lost her lead.

Just when she was about to give up, she passed a corridor only to hear a loud argument from down the hall. _That's it, _she thought.

The noise was coming from interrogation room eight. The door was hanging wide open … she couldn't exactly walk in, sit down, pull out a bag of popcorn and watch the fight. But she did notice the observation room to the right, the door hanging open a crack. Carefully and quietly, even though they probably couldn't hear her over the noise anyway, she walked into the dark room and looked through the double-sided glass.

Her father was in the room, along with Touya. Yukito must've just arrived, along with a few other officials and guards. So, for the first time, she laid her eyes on the Assassin of the North.

"My God," she whispered as her eyes widened. "He can't be older than me!"

Indeed, he was only sixteen going on seventeen. He was as strong as any grown man, since it took two guards to hold him down to the chair and attempt to tie his hands and legs together.

The boys' eyes were amber, but much more intense than Yukito's. There was this deep, burning passion that she thought was hate … but a second glance made her think differently. They didn't look like eyes of a killer. They just looked … deep and concentrated.

His hair was messy chocolate brown, a little longer then her brother's style. And his face and physique …

… well, she hated to admit this about a killer, but he was one of the most handsome – daresay hottest – teenagers she had ever seen.

During the while one of the gentlemen in the room was reading out charges. She was guessing that this was to be the judge for his trial.

" … plead for murder of Ketsuki Ashimoto?"

The boy kicked the guard at his feet in the head, causing him to groan. Sakura yelped and covered her mouth with her hands – that looked like it had hurt.

"Not-Guilty!" the boy grunted.

"And for the murder of Caine Desmond?"

He butted his head back right into another guard's nose. "Not Guilty!"

"Look, Kid," Touya interrupted, glaring hard at the boy. "We have you on surveillance tape. You shot him right in the head."

To Sakura's surprise, the boy laughed. "You don't know your own men very well, do ya?" he asked. "The jackass was sending correspondence with the Pymetrians."

"Do you have proof?" Yukito questioned.

He struggled against the man holding his arms down for a moment before answering, "Not in my back pocket-"

"Then you're guilty as charged."

"God The Pymetrians Were Right About One Thing –"

Sakura inhaled sharply when she saw her father's face darken. If he was getting angry, the situation had certainly gotten worse. She bit her lip. This boy wasn't doing much to help out his own cause. Then again … he was a criminal …

The boy managed to keep talking while fighting against the guards. "About how you never pay attention? You guys eat your fancy dinners and still have your fancy parties and you don't notice traitors right under your nose! I agree with them on that."

"So you admit to being on their side?" Another dignitary asked.

The boy scoffed. "Psht – horse shit. I've been trying to prove them wrong by trying to get some business done, and next thing I know I've got guys from my own side jumping me and threatening to kill me off!" He made another kick at a guard, hitting him the nose. The guard glared and put a hand to his face … blood dribbled down his chin.

"You've got no evidence to support the provocation of such actions, and you must suffer the consiquences!" an older gentleman said.

"If I did everything your way the Pymetrians would be conquering New York at this moment! What With Your Damn Briefcases and your Paperwork that has to be filled out before you go after a guy that's been leaking battle plans to the other side! You're all pathetic!!"

"Then why not go after the obvious?" Fujitaka finally spoke up.

The boy looked him in the eye. "Who, Hiiragizawa?" Fujitaka nodded and the boy scoffed. "I've been planning something on him for years. Was getting pretty damn close before you assholes grabbed me."

Touya stood up from his chair. "I've had enough of this," he mumbled, grabbing his coat. "Take him to the dungeons, cell 108 and station double guards-"

They never saw it coming.

The boy had gotten his hand free, and reached into his back pocket, pulling out something no bigger than a credit card, before throwing it on the ground.

A blinding light went off and filled the room with a dark smoke. Sakura gaped as she heard coughing and wheezing, and her brother's orders to not let the boy get away. She stared through the glass – it was impossible to see a thing. That kid – he was going to get away -

Not if she had anything to say about it.

Quickly, she rushed out of the room to block the exit of the smoke filled chamber, only to crash into said boy. The impact was so hard that he fell onto the ground, and she started to fall on top of him. Luckily, she saw how she could take advantage of the situation and pressed her forearm against his throat, straddling his waist at the same time. He coughed when his air supply was cut off, and finally opened his eyes to face her. She felt those amber irises cut into her as he stared at the girl in surprise.

"Get off me," he grunted.

She shook her head. "No - You Can't Leave!"

Clearly she underestimated his strength, since he suddenly rolled over and now he was on top. One hand was clasped around her throat; the other was holding her two wrists together against the floor above her head.

He suddenly grinned as she coughed. "Don't think I'll go easy on you because you're a girl."

She glared up at him – he was playing around with her - and promptly kicked him in the testicles. His eyes widened and he hunched over as she got to her feet and said, "Don't think I'll go easy on you because you're a guy."

Hooking her arm around his neck, she pulled his head up and said, "You've got to pay for what you've done."

"What _I've_ done?!"

"Yeah, You!"

"Taking care of treasonous generals?"

She froze.

"What?!"

"Ashimoto was about to shoot some little kids on their way home from preschool. I shot him first. Was that the wrong thing to do?"

She was speechless – she hadn't expected this.

"Or how about Desmond's wife? Yeah, she found out what he was doing. She saw shredded faxes to Hiiragizawa in the trash. He had a gun to her head when I got there."

He turned his head to stare into her eyes. "They've got me wrong, kid. Tell them to watch the tape again."

She was right – close up, his eyes weren't hateful. They looked sad.

Sakura shook her head to try and make sense of this. "But – But why get involved in the first place?" she asked.

"Because," he panted. "I don't want anyone else having to go through Pymetrians ripping apart their family like they did with mine, okay? It's bad enough the aliens are against us – we don't need our own kind joining them."

_Why?_

…

_Why do I believe him?_

To her surprise, and his, she let go and stepped back, rubbing her neck that was still sore. He slowly got to his feet, and saw that at the end of the hall there was a fire exit. He brushed past her and ran to the door, opening it with a quick thrust, setting the fire alarms off. Looking over his shoulder, he said one thing.

"Thanks, kid."

And he was gone.

She stared at where he had been, the men from the room filing out behind her, shouting orders … and the fire sprinklers went off, soaking them all and only angering some of them. But she simply stared … once again left behind.

8----------8

TBC

8----------8


	4. November 8, 2138

April 1 2131 - 9

8--8

1: 30 AM, November 8, 2138

(One year later)

8--8

The bathroom was smothered with steam, making vision difficult but offering the feeling of a tempered sauna. The spray of the showerhead was raining down on the legs of Sakura, rat er than her back. Recently she'd discovered that by lying down in the bathtub with her legs stretched upward, making her body bend in half, she was able to think a lot more clearly. Maybe it was the fact that she was lying and rested, or that the hot water was causing her to breath in really clear oxygen. Either way, it worked. Besides, by the end of the day, her feet were always sore from wearing heels all day, and the hot massage of the shower helped sooth the ache directly.

The last year had been a killer on Sakura. First, as she predicted, the scandal of the assassin's escape was still regularly shown on the news. Her father had gotten a hold of the security tapes of that day so no one was able to see how a single teenager got past twelve grown men. And her father never watched it – so no one knew that Sakura had let that teenager get away, either. The fact that the boy was still at large didn't help her father's situation either.

Secondly, since she was now sixteen and her body was fully developed, she was attracting too much attention from boys at school. Sure, there were a few that were after her personality instead of her looks, but she still had to say no. Her reason wasn't as believable as it used to be, though … Yukito had been in Vancouver for the last 8 months, and her admirers would always retort, "What kind of fiancé doesn't see his wife for a year?"

She glanced down at her chest for a moment, frowning. "I don't see what everybody's making a big deal about," she mumbled out loud. "I'm only a B-Cup … and I'm a size 6. There are a lot of girls smaller than I am. And prettier."

The voice of reason in the back of her mind said, _they're after your money and your power._

Sad, but probably true.

And thirdly, the reason for her thinking-shower, she was having issues with her secret research.

Her father and brother didn't question it when she stopped pestering them to give her a job. She had occupied herself in her own mission, one that her relatives and fiancé would not approve of, but seemed too b sy to notice that she was doing anything. She was trying to prove that the assassin was innocent.

The DVDR in her room was constantly recording the news channel. If there were new video of the assassin at work, she would save it. Late at night she would be running through the videos, enhancing voices that she couldn't hear, or sharpening the picture. When her father got back from the more extreme incidents involving the boy, he would always have bags evidence that the experts would discard. She would be digging through garbage bags at two in the morning, looking for some kind of sign, or clue, that would help his cause. Just a few weeks ago, after a man and his wife were shot, they brought back a ton of junk from the man's den, including a voice recorder that no one thought anything of. Sakura nearly jumped out of her bed when she was listening to it that night, when the shriek of the Pymetrian language filled her ears. The woman's voice replied in the same language, acting as interpreter for her husband – and the parts she could hear of the husband (in English) literally spelled "traitor."

She never knew why she was doing this; trying to prove the boy innocent. Maybe she was just that bored out of her mind. So bored, that she would hack into the government mainframe and look at whatever she wants. So bored, that she spent every moment of her spare time thinking over evidence or videos or whatnot. Or maybe she really wanted to help him. Her mind over exaggerated the look of pain and fear in his eyes, and at times she found herself thinking that he was purely innocent, like he was Spider-man or something and the whole city didn't trust his good deeds. Other times she thought that he was a brilliant actor/killer, and that the best thing to do would be to set all of her research on fire.

But she was too deep into it now to give up. Especially tonight.

After almost a year of scanning the networks on her computer, she found the surveillance video that he told her to watch again; the murder of Caine Desmond and hat wife.

The problem was the only surveillance tape available for that house was from the far corner of the foyer. The only image you saw was the boy sneaking into the house (appearing from the bottom of the screen) and sneaking around a corner. The majority of the tape was staring at two walls. There was no audio available, and the most you could see of Desmond was his arm from around the corner of the house, as he fell to the ground, dead.

Unfortunately, that tape showed no evidence to prove him innocent. If there were audio, then yeah, you would've been able to hear SOMETHING, like a struggle of some kind. But this just looked like the assassin was breaking and entering just to off the guy.

She stared up at the ocean-blue tiles across the ceiling of her bathroom, enjoying the massage her calves were getting from the spray of water. Sighing, she turned the water off and slowly stood up, careful not to fall, as she grabbed a towel and dried off.

She emerged from her bathroom a few minutes later, wearing some pajama pants and an old t-shirt. Her curtains were open, revealing the lights of the city. Checking the clock on the wall proved that it was 1:30 AM – and she felt ready to jump out the window herself.

Sakura got onto her knees beside her bed, thrusting her hands in between the mattress and the box spring. She grunted as she struggled with two objects hiding inside. Finally pulling them out, she revealed a laptop and a thick binder chronologically and alphabetically filled with DVD's, photos and newspaper clippings. On the cover of the white plastic, it read, EVIDENCE in black Sharpie marker.

She sat on the bed and crossed her legs, facing the city skyline, as she opened her machine. The screen was exactly where she had left it, inside the deepest mainframe of the World Computer System. She stretched her arms above her head for a moment, before typing and clicking the keyboard.

_All that time spent,_ she thought. _All that time looking for folders and cracking passwords and all I get is a video that doeqp't help me one bit! _

Suddenly, she came across a new folder. It read, 'Surveillance of San Jose, California – 139th, Yorkshire Blvd.' She would've ignored it and kept going, but part of her wondered, _why does that sound so familiar – _

She flipped open the binder, turning pages until she reached a section labeled _Ashimoto_. Carefully, she scanned her notes, looking for something – _There!_ She jerked to a stop, reading an address. _The nearby preschool that he talked about – it's right in that neighborhood! This is probably the surveillance camera from that area!_

Clicking on the mouse pad, she opened the folder and saw billions of dates. After looking up the date of the incident, she scrolled through the thousands of video files, and finally came upon the time. Feeling nervous and excited at the same time, she double-clicked the mouse to open the file.

It was late afternoon, and thankfully, there was some low audio. A loud air-raid siren was screeching through the air, signaling citizens to return to their homes. _That's right,_ she remembered. _It was right before the Pymetrians attacked_.

Soldiers were running through the streets as the camera rotated from left to right, when she saw a soldier wave his buddies ahead. He started to walk down the streets alone, and when the camera reached as far right as it could go, she saw the three-way road that was there. And around the corner of the farthest wall, she saw a brown head.

_It's him._

Her heart thumped, but she shook it off. That seemed to be happening a lot, lately … getting worked up over that boy. Whenever she saw him on camera, or a picture … she seemed to get excited. But she told herself that now was not the time to get worked up.

Just then, the soldier was walking quickly to the edge of the road, and she heard something indistinct in the background. To her surprise, the soldier was raising his gun, ready to fire –

- when the boy jumped out and shot him in the head.

Sakura yelped, then clamped her hands over her mouth, cursing herself silently since she might wake up her father. After a few tense moments of silence, when she heard no movement from outside her room, she focused on the screen again.

The boy was looking at something around the corner and talking to it. It wasn't in view of the camera, but it proved one thing; that there _were_ people behind that (possibly preschoolers like he had said), meaning he was innocent and she had hard evidence for it.

She grinned and softly clapped her hands, before saving the file to a disc. _That certainly brought me out of my funk,_ she thought. _And put me in a better mood to go to sleep._ Yawning, she closed her machine and the binder, shoving them back under the mattress, before crawling under the covers and succumbing to exhaustion.

8--8

Cafeteria lunches are absolutely dismal.

Yes, because it was a private school the meals were fully cooked and contained all the right food groups and portions. But due to shortages from the southern states due to combat, they had been cut back to military rations … not to say Sakura was a picky eater. But army rations … well they weren't even fit for the boys who fight for her country.

She poked at the cold cuts on the plastic plate, sighing, wishing simply for a hot chocolate. And for her kitchen … maybe a nice, home-cooked meal, with her brother in attendance for once. And Yukito, too …

She shook her head almost violently to rid the thoughts from her mind. Her brother was never home for dinner. Her father was a rarity, as well. Yukito was in Vancouver, doing insane amounts of paperwork and helping pass new Emergency Act laws. She couldn't bother him with an evening back home.

Not to mention, due to said Emergency Acts, it would take him at least ten days to get to New York City … too many military groups were being ambushed. Transports carrying dignitaries were being targeted. The government now advised for anyone who absolutely needed to travel to do so as inconspicuously as possible. There were unsettling reports on the news about how many families across the nation had chosen to leave their homes, disappearing without a trace other than they were fleeing to the north, to Canada. Some asinine reporters were calling this the new Underground railway – Pymetrians couldn't survive in colder conditions. There were also reports of people holing up in Aspen. Either way, things were looking desperate for the human race …

In a sudden rush of realization the noise of the crowded cafeteria hit Sakura like a ton of bricks, causing her to flinch and blink rapidly at the surrounding student body. They were all around her, standing near her table and sitting at their own. Despite the fact that no was in her comfort zone she pulled her messenger bag into her lap before forcing herself to eat her broccoli.

Inside the bag was her laptop, her schoolbooks, and her evidence binder. When she first began her 'project' she had nightmares about the maids changing her sheets and finding the charts and information about world networking databases, and hand her over to her own father. Because of this, she realized that her best bet was to keep her dirty little secret on her person at all times.

She munched dully on her greens, listening to the conversations around her. She wasn't able to associate with these people … they were all related to one man or another that tried to sabotage her father. Or they were related to suspected betrayers. Therefore she had a table all to herself. She didn't consider it lonesome – it gave her time to think. About her 'report', about life … and why she wasn't more cultured. Just recently she had decided that since life was looking so dismal and short, she needed to get as much out of it as she could. Therefore, she had gone to the library the other day and picked up a classic (a classic that hadn't yet been added to the Blacklist); Jane Austin's 'Pride & Prejudice'.

She had just gotten to the part of Elizabeth's best friend telling her she was marrying Mr. Collins when the bell signifying the end of the lunch hour rang. While the cafeteria made a unanimous groan and shuffled their things together before heading to their classrooms, Sakura simply picked up her bag, her book, and began to leave. Due to her extra time at home to do her homework, she was ahead of everyone else – she had no afternoon classes. A car always picked her up after lunch.

She hustled down the stone steps of her school, crossing her arms over her chest as a chill spread from the portion of her legs unprotected from her skirt all the way to her spine. She checked her watch – she was early. Usually it took longer for her to get through the mobs and reach the street where her chauffer waited.

Sighing, she leaned from side to side, trying to pass the time. She would get home, finish her work, read another chapter or two of P&P … and then delve into her project. The video was an extraordinary find. That only left about another five cases unsolved. Most were more recent, and had been so in depth that her brother and father never brought their work home. She would have to be sneakier about getting to the files …

A murmur of commotion brought her out of her thoughts again. She looked down the empty street. There was a media store on the corner. People were standing in front of the window – some grubby looking street dwellers, that could only hear the news from the store's window … but there were businessmen and more professional looking people as well. She frowned. This was odd. Those who were on top these days, in the midst of growing panic, tried to stay on top in every way shape and form. Curious, she looked over her shoulder. No sign of her town car in sight – she began to walk towards the store.

Some people heard the news and were instantly turning to the street to hail a cab. She could see the frantic looks on their faces, or their shock. She quickened her pace.

She could hear what they were all exclaiming about. Bits and pieces … nothing discernible yet … until one man suddenly shouted;

"THEY CAUGHT 'EM! They EFFING caught 'em!"

And she stopped in her tracks.

8--8

It was all over the news. The same footage was running over and over again all over the transmitors. The trial was tomorrow – and for such an occasion the prep meeting was held in her dining room. Her father and her brother were there … along with the judge who would be looking over the trial of the Boy Killer.

She had seen his face as the authorities took him into the holding facility – it really was him – and even though it had only been a year, he looked older somehow. He was taller, too, by a few inches. And just to make life a lot less easy he was still the most attractive boy she had seen.

She sat in her bedroom, debating her options. Sitting cross-legged on her bed, with her chin in her hands, she stared at the door. She could hear the murmuring in the other room. The judge looking after the trials was in there. And the binder and laptop and discs upon discs of evidence was sitting at the foot of her bed.

Her brain went through her average problem solving process;

Option #1: Burst through bedroom door, show book of evidence and speak as intelligibly as possible (when facing the impending doom brought by her father and brother) and hope the judge comes to a reasonable decision.

Pros: Gets the dirty deed done and over with and she won't have to think of it again.

Cons: one could sound like a total idiot, given she has no time to prepare. Plus there are a ton of other men out there that would gladly throw her into the slammer without a moments hesitation. Then she would have years to think about this incident over and over again.

Alright then …

Option #2: Talk to the judge privately, if possible. Before the trial starts. It's ultimately his decision. He may be a reasonable man. He could come up with a solution that suits the boy and her.

Pros: Probably the best option. Least likely for disaster or impending doom.

Cons: How to get to judge and convince him to listen to her. He may not know of her, or her father's good reputation at all. Then there's the factor of her father's reputation being demolished by all this …

Option #3: Keep quiet. Let the chips fall where they may.

Pros: She does nothing.

Cons: She does nothing.

Groaning loudly she fell backwards on her bed, rubbing her hands on her temples.

_It starts with one_

_One thing, I don't know why_

_It doesn't even matter how hard you try_

_Keep that in mind, I designed this rhyme_

_To explain in due time_

She tilted her head to the side … to stare at the photo on her nightstand. It was probably her most cherished possession. After staring at its contents for a moment, she sighed in defeat, rolling to her side and sitting up. Carefully she lifted the frame and smiled at the picture. Finally, she gave it a quick kiss of luck, took a quick, steadying breath before standing and pulling her evidence binder from underneath her bed, and stepping towards the door. She cracked it open a moment to listen in on the conversation.

_All I know_

_Time is a valuable thing_

_Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings_

_Watch it count down to the end of the day_

_The clock ticks life away_

" … this boy has six counts of murder against authority figures, another eight for officers of the force. And attempted assassination of an ambassador!"

"Which ambassador was that?"

"Does it _matter_?"

"I believe so, Anderson."

She gaped and clapped her hand over her mouth. President Anderson was at her dining room table. President-of-the-World Anderson. Oh god. And that last voice … she recognized it from before. It spoke again.

"That ambassador was Eriol Hiiragizawa."

There was an odd silence in the room. The voice spoke again. "In my opinion that makes him a hero."

"God Dammit, Reginald, why are you defending him?! He still murdered without cause!"

It hit her in an instant; Reginald Ormsby.

He was the man that sat with her all those years ago, at the conference. The man who stayed with her until her father got home at one in the morning.

Oh God.

_It's so unreal_

_Didn't look out below_

_Watch the time go right out the window_

_Trying to hold on but didn't even know_

_Wasted it all just to_

_Watch you go_

_I kept everything inside and even though I tried_

_It all fell apart_

_What it meant to me will eventually_

_Be a memory of a time when_

"This boy is not the law! Nor is he above it! To maintain what little peace we have left we need to prove that the court is in charge!"

Ormsby sighed. " … alright. When do we hold the trial?"

Her father spoke. "Noon tomorrow. If we want to convey the message of order we need to broadcast it – but that can only happen with your permission."

" … fine. We'll use the conference hall."

Sakura shut her door. She didn't need to hear anymore … she knew what she had to do. She knew the consequences. Her reputation was ruined. Not only would Ormsby, a man she always held in great respect, think horribly of her, there was a good chance that no matter how privately she talked to him, the story would spread. But then again, Ormsby was probably her only chance in the world …

The binder crashed to the floor from her shaking hands. She hiccupped. This could probably be her last night as a free, innocent girl.

Shoulders trembling, she held her sobs until she reached her bed. She pulled her pillow over her head and the covers over her body before she openly cried. After a moment she reached her hand out and took hold of the picture on her nightstand, squeezing it to her chest. She muttered to it, "I glad you're not h-here …" she hiccupped again. "T-To see this … but … I'm so sorry …"

…. In the frame was her mother, smiling beautifully up at the camera as she held her innocent, free, pure and untarnished baby girl.

8--8

She did sleep. How could she? By the time she stopped crying she only had a few hours to devise how this would happen. After sneaking into her father's study and memorized his schedule, she was able to come up with the plan.

Her father was to awake at six in the morning. He would shower, eat and dress, then head out to work at seven-fifteen. He would return five minutes later to retrieve the wallet he had left on his nightstand (like he did every single day). During those precious five minutes, Sakura, using the computer and printer in her father's room, make a copy of his Security Access card. She would give him the copy, since it had no microchip and would never let him into any secure portions of the Conference Center. He wouldn't need to get anywhere private until eleven thirty anyway, where he was to meet with Judge Ormsby and Touya in the holding cells, to escort the accused to his trial.

Touya would wake at seven thirty. He would shower, eat and dress as well. He took showers twice as long as his father – it would be during those crucial ten minutes where Sakura would make a copy of his security card and hand him the fake. The same rules and schedule regarding the card apply to him as they did her father.

Therefore the only ones meeting the Judge at eleven thirty would not be Fujitaka, who would be sending out a maximum-security alert (since his card was all-access) considering the possibility of an escape attempt in progress for the accused. And it would not be Touya, who would be calling someone (likely his father) to get his card to enter the detention center, only to discover his fathers card stolen as well, and go ballistic.

It would be Sakura.

Who was standing outside a vacant entryway to the Detention Center. There was no one down the hall. The time was eleven twenty-nine. Her father's card was expected to be swiped at exactly eleven thirty. She started at her watch, eyes following the ticker as it counted up to the twelve. With five seconds to go, she looked up one more time to see that the hall was clear.

Eleven thirty. Time to move.

She turned to the door, holding her binder and swiped the card through the lock on the door. The light turned green – she turned the handle and let herself in.

As she wandered down the halls of the center she tried to ignore the rooms that had were occupied. At the sound of footsteps some inmates rushed to the tiny window of their door, screaming instantly or ogling at the girl. She bit her bottom lip and hurried her steps. She knew where to go this time around, unlike last year where she ran like a mad woman.

She was slowly coming to terms with her decision to talk to the judge. She wasn't even close to being mentally prepared for however the judge reacted, but she would deal with that when the time came. For now, just for now, she had to do the right thing.

It came too quickly. She rounded a corner and saw him. Ormsby, with two guards, standing before a door. The guards told the prisoner to put his hands against the far wall before they opened the door. She gulped – too late to hesitate now – and stepped forward.

The guards were already in the room … but Ormsby heard her. He looked up curiously, his eyes crinkled with age … but smiled. "Sakura?" he asked. "I was expecting a few other Kinomotos … what are you doing he-"

"I'm sorry, sir, but if I don't talk now I'll never get it out right," she blurted out. Despite her preparation her hands were still shaking. When she finally reached him, he was looking down at her peculiarly.

Gulping, she told herself, _Do the right thing._

And handed him the book.

The man simply held it open, flipping through the pages. After a few moments his eyes widened. But he continued to turn, stopping every now and then to read something. She gulped – it was unbearable. She couldn't watch him – a voice rang through her head.

"You are all that Fujitaka, Touya and I have left. We just don't want to lose you. Do you understand that?"

I do, she thought. But I have to do this. I'm sorry-

and that's when the guards brought out the Killer in handcuffs.

She stared at him with wide eyes. It was almost on this exact same spot that she had met him almost a year ago. It was him she was doing this for … or was it?

Was she really doing it because she believed him? Or because she wanted to justify letting him run free?

At that moment he noticed her, blinking for a moment before freezing to the spot. She took a step back – his amber eyes were burningly intense.

"You," he breathed.

Ormsby was brought back to reality at his voice. The guards stared from the girl to their commander. "Sir?" they asked, causing him to turn. "To the conference hall?"

Sakura stared up at him – this was the part she had no preparation for – the sentence.

…. And he shook his head. "No."

Sakura's head popped up.

"Sir?"

Ormsby sighed. "Bring him to … which courtroom is closest? And out of the way? Room Eight, right?"

The guards stared at each other doubtfully. "Well, yes, sir."

"Good. Lets all take a walk there."

The guards nodded … and one stepped forward to grasp Sakura's arm.

Sakura gaped. _Oh god. _


	5. November 9, 2138

Sorry for the long wait guys, but here is a (fairly) revised new chapter! Enjoy!

8---------8

November 9th, 2138

8---------8

This courtroom was small and empty, the kind used for matters such as traffic violations and civil dispute. Nonetheless the roar of outrage from the main conference hall was a buzz around them, creating a constant hum. The soldiers took both parties into the room. The boy simply stared back and forth from the judge to the girl … whose bottom lip was trembling in fear.

All the courage Sakura had built up over the hours was gone – she was a shaky, whimpering mess. The soldier set her down in the closest chair to the door. She may be in trouble but she had yet to be convicted. The boy remained in handcuffs.

The judge, Lord Ormsby, turned to face them all. With a simple nod the soldiers walked out of the room, shutting the door behind them (and no doubt guarding it from eavesdroppers).

Sakura stared wildly back and forth between the two. The boy sat still, except for the odd glance at her from time to time. The judge sat at the table, setting her binder down on the mahogany surface, and continued to flip through the pages for a good minute. It was a minute that tore at Sakura's sanity.

Suddenly the boy muttered, "You found the tapes, didn't you?"

Her head snapped in his direction. It took her a second to find her voice. "Yeah, I did."

The boy's gaping mouth slowly turned to a grin … and he let out a laugh. "Unbelievable …" he muttered.

She gaped right back at him, about to scream his ear off-

"Sakura?"

The two stared at the judge. He closed the binder and crossed his hands overtop. "My daughter-" he started, but her nerves took over.

"Would never do something like this?" she finished meekly.

He shook his head. To her shock he smiled a bit; he looked nice, and understanding, just like he had that fateful day all those years ago. "She's in her third year at Harvard Law. I've seen her mock trials. And her evidence pieces don't look half as good as these do."

Her face dropped. "Really?" she yelped, her voice cracking.

The judge nodded solemnly. "But the fact of the matter is that we need someone to go through this evidence thoroughly, and we don't have that kind of time. For now, the boy is still accused … but this heightens his chances of freedom."

She nodded slowly. So all her hard work had been put to good use … kinda.

The judge muttered to himself for a bit, something along the lines of "what to do, what to do," his hands clasped, covering his mouth.

Finally, he sighed, looking at the boy. He sat still, oddly calm for his situation. Ormsby stepped forward and took a hold of his handcuffs. And to the surprise of both, he let one of his hands loose.

Sakura stared wildly at him. "What are you-"

"Li," the judge stated. "You owe this girl. And you have got to be more careful."

For a second the boy, Li's eyes widened a fraction more, but he nodded. "How do you know my name?" he asked.

"I know about the Satori Project. I worked on it with your parents."

Li froze.

"You know of Professor Burns?" the judge asked.

He nodded. Sakura perked up at the name.

"He has the information to stop all of this – to put your work to good use. He needs to get to Vancouver. The only problem is large groups have been targeted for the last few months – you know this. It's better to travel incognito."

Li nodded again. "Absolutely."

"If you escort him and his son unharmed to Vancouver HQ you're crimes will be pardoned. Understood?"

Li nodded – it seemed like the only thing he could do in the situation. "Certainly, sir."

The judge suddenly grinned. "And on a personal note, I believe your father would be proud."

When the judge turned to the girl, she couldn't decide what horrified her more; the fact that the boy – despite her proving his innocence moments ago – would be the bodyguard to the one man that could save the planet, or that the judge _knew _him? The ideas had caused her to sink to the ground, head in hands. The man saw her expression, sighed and started, "Sakura – "

"You're letting him protect Burns and his son?!" she exclaimed, in a voice more shrill than she wanted it to be.

The judge nodded. "This boy has the skills to fight against the Pymetrians, Sakura. You know that. They will be fine. As for you-"

She froze.

"You will accompany them. Hopefully," he began to undo the elaborate robes that covered his suit. At the same time Li unclamped his other hand. "Risking your life for a few months will be enough for the council to forgive you. Now," he walked up to her and patted her head like she was the same little ten-year-old girl, watching the conference with him. "Lets stop sticking our noses into government mainframes, shall we?"

Sakura gaped, staring into nothingness.

"Good girl. Sakura Kinomoto, meet Syaoran Li."

Syaoran stared down at her … she stared up into his burning eyes, and back at Ormsby … and broke.

8----------------8

Ormsby, along with two soldiers, brought the sobbing girl back to her apartments. The judge simply told her to pack up some belongings for the trip. She had nodded silently and headed to her room, collapsing on the bed. About five minutes later she heard her father and brother enter, exclaim surprise at the sight of Ormsby … and heard the judge tell them what their little girl had been up to.

She heard her brother shout and scream, and attempt to storm into her room. She had pulled the pillow over her head, truly feeling cowardly. But the judge had quieted them down … and the other room was silent. She lifted her head, finally out of tears, with no idea as to how long she had been crying.

The sound of silence.

Realizing she couldn't cry anymore but had to do something … she gave in. Crawling on her hands and knees she pulled out a duffel bag from underneath her bed, unzipped the top …and began to pack.

She paused and looked down at a tee shirt she had been folding. It was once her father's – an old work shirt that she slept in as a child whenever he was gone on long business trips. She had grown accustomed to it, and now it was almost threadbare from the years of use. He knew she missed him terribly whenever he went away. And yet, for her first time going out, she had no idea how he would feel about her leaving. She hadn't heard her father say a word since her brother and him got home_._

"Miss?"

She looked up to see the housemaid, her old nanny, standing in the doorway. She hadn't even heard her come in. Sakura stared feebly up at her, who simply smiled. "Do you need help, miss?"

Sakura's lip trembled, and she nodded. The woman walked over to her dresser and began to pull out clothes that made more sense than anything else Sakura had grabbed already. "In my opinion miss," she spoke. "That was a very brave thing you did."

Sakura scoffed. "I'm not so sure it was worth it."

Her nanny walked over and set the neatly folded pile down, patting the girl on her head. "It was, dear. Your mother would be proud of you."

She had been certain she was out of tears earlier, but her eyes watered up again and she hugged her nanny, the closest thing she had to a mother.

After another few minutes her responsible side came around. Her father had done one thing right – he raised her to accept her consequences. Touched by the woman's kindness she sighed and pulled back, smiling for the first time in days. "Thank you," she muttered.

After a while working together, Sakura stared at the wall to her right, the wall separating her father's room from hers, once again hearing a muffled conversation. She sighed, her shoulders sinking. Biting her lip, she secretly wished she could've spent this last hour talking with her father…to help him understand why she did it. But how could she make him understand when she didn't even understand what she did? She frowned, and tried to focus on the task at hand. She noticed a messenger bag on the ground, and grabbed it, filling it with contents she would need.

And then someone knocked on the front door.

She ignored it, at first. Until it continued. And then she remembered that her brother, her father and herself and the nanny were the only people left in the house. And since the other two were unavailable for comment at the moment …

Her nanny began to stand but Sakura held her hand up to stop her. She had a feeling she knew who was out there.

The main room was dark, with only the kitchen lights aglow. There was a lone duffle bag with some essentials inside, and a briefcase leaning against it (most likely containing weapons) beside the front door. She stared at it in confusion. Whose was that?

Jumping over the bag, she made it to the front door, and opened it. There was a tall soldier on the other side. She stared at him oddly, until he stepped aside and revealed another military troop … and …

Syaoran Li. The boy hadn't changed since the hearing. There was a small bag strapped over his shoulder, across his chest.

Sakura stared at the figure for a moment, and realized that she was gawking and he was fully aware of it. _Oh for God's sake,_ she thought. _He's not that good looking …even though he is. God Dammit._

Gulping, Sakura stepped aside. "Come in, I guess."

He eyed her for a moment, before side stepping past her and entering the living room. The two soldiers came in as well, waiting at the door.

She stared at his back for a moment. He was tall, at least five or six inches more than her … and built. She didn't know what she had expected – a killer with no muscle? She stared at the jacket pulled tightly across his shoulders and the way he moved. He was very steady in his step … cautious at every turn … and snapped back to reality. Brushing past the "accused" quickly, she said over her shoulder, "I'll be ready in a few minutes."

When she didn't get a response, she just walked back to her room and continued to pack. The nanny caught sight of the boy, but her expression didn't change. She simply tucked a small bag of toiletries into the bottom corner of the duffle. The room was really, really quiet, except for the conversation that continued in the room next door. But she was trying to ignore that at the moment.

"So."

She froze.

That was Syaoran's voice.

"How did you find them?"

She rolled her eyes, although he couldn't see. "I'm sorry but I really don't feel like talking about it right now," she answered as politely as she could.

She could almost hear the smile in his voice. "Not used to going against Daddy's orders now, are you?"

Sakura almost whirled around and chucked the shoe in her hands at his head. But instead she sat there, hand clenching the sneaker with anger-shaken fingers. The nanny glared up at him. "Be grateful, boy," she warned.

He shrugged. "I'm just teasing … this is going to be a long trip if we can't joke around."

Sakura remained silent, except for muttering under her breath, "Unbelievable … "

"I thought that was my line?"

Sakura growled and stood up. "Alright, you know what?" She turned to face him, fury in her eyes. He had the gall to look surprised, leaning casually against her doorframe. "Fuck it!" she threw her hands up in the air. "I'm not going with you!"

"Sakura-!" her nanny began, but Sakura interrupted.

"I don't care! I'll go to jail, I'll do the time – I am NOT going on the road with HIM," she pointed at the accused and sat on her bed defiantly, arms crossed.

"I'll keep him off your back."

Li jumped a little and Sakura's expression dropped when she looked up to see her brother standing at the door. He was absolutely stone cold. A chill went up her spine as she froze, all attitude gone.

Li stepped away from the door, closer into the room, to stare at her brother. Touya directed his glare at him and it seemed to intensify. His sister had never seen him so enraged.

Li stood unfazed. Slowly the general took a step closer so he was staring down the boy. "During this 'trip', I am in charge," he explained in a low intense voice. "There will be no flack, no back talk, no detours. If I ever suspect that you are a danger to anyone else on this mission, I will not hesitate to shoot you."

Sakura's eyes widened. Touya was coming? … that was HIS duffle bag and briefcase by the door?!

Finally Sakura's father appeared behind Touya. She saw his expression … it was blank for the moment … but didn't look as disappointed as she thought it would. He laid a hand on his sons shoulder to calm him down, but to no affect. Sakura locked eyes with her father, and his only reply was a sad smile. Her own eyes began to well with tears … _again_.

But what Li said next shocked her more. "Right back at you."

Sakura wasn't the only one staring in confusion now. It was the nanny that asked. "Excuse me?"

Li never too his eyes from Touya's, and spoke as seriously as he had. "Don't assume that I'm a little punk running amuck on the world. I know this is serious, I understand what is at stake – this is not a joyride. But at the same time I've had to fight to stay alive in parts of the world that your military boys don't know exist. So the only thing I want from you on this mission is to jump when I say jump, run when I say run, and shoot when I say shoot. Clear?"

Anyone could see the fuming rage erupt on Touya's face, but he never had a chance to blow up at him – at that moment the soldiers at the door called, "It's time, sir."

Touya sent one last glare at him, turned on his heel and huffed towards the door. Sakura gulped – this was not getting off to a great start.

She turned away from the fued and addressed her bag on the bed. It seemed that it was finally full. It was time. There was nothing left to do, but … leave. Sighing she pulled out the sweater that was sitting on the top and pulled it on before zipping it shut. She turned around, slinging it on her shoulder and feebly said, "I'm ready."

Her voice made the three left in the room come out of the awkward silence they stood in. Li moved first, out of the doorway to let Sakura and the nanny pass. Sakura hung her head as she passed her father – she felt ashamed, embarrassed, and like a complete failure … she didn't want to face him. But at the same time, when would she see him again …?

"Sir, could I have a word?"

Sakura stopped abruptly and turned – Li was addressing her father. He looked just as surprised as she was.

Li stood up straight, chin up, all joking aside and faced Fujitaka. "Sir, it's entirely my fault that your daughter is involved in my mess –"

Touya, who had heard the boy speak from the front door, called out, "Fucking right it is!" but it was a glare from the nanny that silenced him.

Li sent a quick glare to him before looking at the patriarch of the family again. The expression he held was so respectful … Sakura hated to admit it, but she suddenly didn't hate him as much.

"And I don't think you should forgive me for pulling her into this – but I am grateful for what she put on the line for me," he continued. "The least I can do is bring her back to you in one peace. I'll look after her like I will Burns and his child. She'll come home safe and sound – I promise."

For the oddest reason, Sakura felt her cheeks heat up. She gulped and turned away from the moment.

Touya, however, didn't see the effort made with the promise. "If you think you're getting anywhere near my sister you have another thing coming, you little -"

Li said nothing, but held his ground and kept his eyes on Fujitaka. The man of the house gaped a little bit, thrown by the promise. He certainly hadn't expected this from the murderer – but if anyone knew him, he always held people to their word. And the way the boy presented himself shifted Fujitaka's dislike for him, just like it had in his daughter. He dipped his head in a nod. "Thank you."

One of the soldiers at the door suddenly said, "It's 6:50, sir. We're behind schedule."

Li nodded back to him, obviously satisfied that he got his point across. He walked down the hall towards the front door, passing Sakura …

… whose cheeks were beet-red from the declaration. Her heart had started pounding the second he finished speaking and she was confused as hell. Why would something like that get her riled up? It made no sense – maybe because he said he'd protect her, doesn't every girl wish for that? No, God, she was starting to sound like one of those comic book girls getting lovey-dovey over their knight in shining armor … FOCUS, Sakura, FOCUS!

Turning from one heartache to another, she put the promise on the back burner for now and turned to her father, staring at him for a moment. Her last few hours spent in her home hadn't contained any talking between the two, and she couldn't leave like this. She bit her lip, trying to fight back tears, and then rushed up to him and hugged him tightly, not caring if the "assassin" saw her soft side. Her father hugged back, as she whispered into his neck. "Daddy, I'm so sorry."

He hushed her and rubbed her back. "Honey, it's alright. I'm proud of you, you know."

Surprised, she pulled her head back and blinked up him. He smiled down at her. "What have I always told you? Innocent until proven guilty. And you're the only one in the state of New York that bothered proving anything."

A wave of odd relief washed over her, and she couldn't bring herself to smile. She simply hugged him again, very tightly, taking in his scent, his caring arms, memorizing the feel.

"Sakura, c'mon," her brother called.

Slowly, Sakura stepped away from her father, holding his hand until the last possible moment before her fingers slipped away from his. Gulping, she said, "Tell Yukito for me?"

Her father nodded solemnly, the smile slowly fading from his face as she stepped away. He stayed in the hall, unable to move it seemed. The sight of him made her chest ache with a new kind of pain, and she was too afraid that she would run back at him and refuse to go, so she faced forward as they began to leave.

The two soldiers, Touya (who was holding his briefcase fairly close), and Li left the house and entered the hallway.

Sakura paused, taking a deep breath, and stepped out, closing the door behind her. _An__d the ordeal begins …_

8---------8

TBC .... and SOON! :D

8---------8

I'm sorry I haven't replied to any reviews yet but I will! I appreciate every one of them!!


	6. November 9th cont

Told you guys I'd be quick *grins* seriously, I can't even concentrate on schoolwork anymore – Touya, Sakura, Li and Kero are running around in my head and I can't get them to stop!!

If you want a little something extra, I suggest listening to the following songs – I listened to them as I wrote this chapter.

The Moment I Said It _by Imogen Heap  
_Let Me Sign _by Robert Pattinson _(yes, it's the guy from the 'Twilight' movies that girls are either going ape-shit over or they want to kill him – I just like how moody the song is, okay? Especially for Kero's scene at the end.)

8---------------------------8

November 9th (cont)

8---------------------------8

As they rode in the elevator the soldiers had briefed them with their first set of instructions, and Sakura realized at that moment that she had absolutely no clue how this was going to play out. While her father and the sergeants were laying out the route and settling all the details, she had been bawling in her room and packing.

According to the soldiers they were heading to the underground parkade, where one of the army's unmarked, bullet-proof jeeps was waiting. They would drive through the night to Burns' current location – Ottawa, Canada. From there the soldiers guarding his home would have the next set of instructions. From then on, to keep the mission as confidential and secure as possible, they would only receive further instructions once they've arrived at the next checkstops, all the way till they reached Vancouver.

As she listened Sakura got the drift that they would be traveling as just the five of them, no soldiers or artillery. To the rest of the world they would look like most of the other groups out in the wilderness; a family of passersby that are simply heading for safer ground. But Sakura couldn't help but wonder if there was a double-motive behind the checkpoints. Obviously there's the factor of knowing if the members of the mission are still alive, but maybe it's a factor of keeping an eye on Li as well …

Sakura snuck a look at Li at that moment. He hadn't noticed; he was listening intently to the instructions. She focused on his eyes – so intent, so … and his words suddenly repeated in her head …

_She'll come home safe and sound – I promise_.

And once again her cheeks burned – she had to look away sharply so he wouldn't see, and internally groaned. This was getting ridiculous! Focus, Sakura, Focus!

The elevator reached its destination and the doors opened to the parkade. It was empty - no doubt cleared by the soldiers - except for a single black jeep. The trio stepped off as the doors closed behind them. And now they'd be alone for the rest of the ride.

When they neared the jeep Li suddenly asked, "So are you going to drive?"

Sakura rolled her eyes. Li has obviously caught on that Touya liked to be in charge.

"No," Touya responded.

Sakura was surprised – Li was unfazed. "So I'm driving?" he asked.

"No. Sakura is."

She had stopped so suddenly, yet the lack of response from her nerves caused her duffle bag to fall to the pavement. For the first time since the apartment she spoke up, and her voice echoed louder (and more shrilly than she liked) throughout the empty room. "What?!"

Touya reached the trunk and flipped it open, dumping his duffle inside. He looked back at his frozen sister. "If I drive, that gives him the opportunity to attack me OR you. If he drives he could drive us off a cliff. If you drive, I can keep an eye on him."

Li frowned for a moment before smiling – in an obviously strained way. "Nice trust we got at the beginning of this whole gong show, Kinomoto," he said with just a touch of bitterness.

Sakura stayed gaping. This was fucking ridiculous. And the fact that Touya didn't know what she was about to say was even more fucking ridiculous. One loud nervous laugh escaped her, before her face fell. "Touya you have to drive," she said in a stern voice.

"What?" Touya asked.

"Because I don't have my license!"

Touya froze before looking over at her in shock.

"I thought you got it when you turned 16!" her brother said.

Sakura scoffed, before lowering her voice in an attempt to imitate her brother. "'What do you need a license for when you've got a car and a trained driver?'" she said in a scratchy voice, ending with a glare. Childish as it was, it proved that most of his rules regarding her behavior ended up biting him in the ass.

Li's eyes had been darting back and forth between the two as they bickered, his mouth open in surprise. But when she stopped and Touya stood dumbfounded for a moment, he finally spoke. "WOW," he exclaimed. "How did you not know that?"

Touya turned his gaze to him, his eyes venomous. "Shut up and get in the car."

But he didn't stop. His shoulders sagged like he was disappointed, when really he was just egging the lieutenant on. "Dude, she's your little sister!"

Sakura finally walked up to the car and joined in on the teasing as she opened the back door. "If you haven't noticed he hasn't really kept a lot of tabs on me to begin with – otherwise I wouldn't be in this mess," she told Li matter-of-factly.

Li kept up at act as his gaze went thoughtful. "This is true."

They had hit his final button – "BOTH of you GET in the FUCKING car."

Sighing, Sakura got into the back seat as the two sat up front. Touya started the engine, and soon they were pulling out of the parkade. Instead of the normal guards five soldiers were standing at the gates, obviously keeping civilians out. They entered the main streets, beginning their journey.

After a few minutes of silence, and deeming that the next question would be better than asking if they could listen to the radio, Sakura asked, "How long of a drive is it to Ottawa, anyway?" Any time she had gone to the northern country, it had been by plane, once by airship, but never by car.

"Seven and a half hours. Get comfy."

She bit her lip, suppressing an inner moan.

8-----------------------------8

It took almost an hour to get out of the city limits. The silence seemed deafening and dulling at the same time. Sakura found her head lolling against the seat as her drooping eyes watched the lights of the shops and lamps speed past. Soon the streaks of light became fewer and farther between …. And soon they were driving in darkness.

She realized she might not see her home ever again. New York had been this protective bubble for her – in a city so large, it was easier to ignore the obvious signs of the war, but the more she thought about it, New York had been lucky. Los Angeles was ruined in March three years ago; New Orleans had been reduced to rubble when the enemy came by sea. But in New York people still went to school, went to their jobs, got their hair cut, through parties, looked after their kids …. A city so big that the war couldn't touch it. But only now she was realizing how vulnerable it must've been: the Pymetrians must know that if they took New York out of the picture that the battle would be won. This city, the biggest city on the planet, one of the last metropolis' left, could be the next target. And if things went worse than planned on this mission, she may not live to see it survive …

"How old are you, anyway?"

She almost didn't hear it, sunk so far in her own mind, and it took her a moment to wake from the trance she was in. When she lifted her head up she saw those burning amber eyes staring at her from the rearview mirror. She nearly jumped when she realized Li was staring at her.

"You don't have to talk to him," her brother's voice, louder than needed for the small space, replied.

The gaze darted for a second to glare at the driver. She joined, but was happy to have any kind of distraction after her mind had sunk so deep into that train of miserable thought. She sat up straight, slowly, since her muscles were tight from the confined space, before answering in a voice much more tired that she felt. "I'm sixteen. Seventeen in five months."

His eyebrows rose lightly. "Wow," he stated. "You look older."

She had heard that a few times in her life, but didn't expect it from him. She shrugged lightly, and looked away, not knowing what to say. "Well, how old are you?"

"Nineteen."

Her eyes widened and she was so excited she leaned forward. Later she would question that enthusiasm. "That's it?!" she exclaimed.

His gaze turned amused. Maybe he was just happy to have someone to talk to that wouldn't be condescending to her? Either way, his eyes seemed a little playful – he could've been grinning for all she knew. "How old did you think I was?" he teased.

She grinned right back, and at the moment part of her mind was realizing this was the closest to a realistic, average conversation that she's ever had with a boy her age. Because of her personal security, she'd never talked to many of her fellow classmates because none of them had been cleared by the media or whatnot. And maybe she was dying to talk to someone other than a state official – but she was feeling a little perkier than before.

Without missing a beat, she teased, "How old did you think _I _was?"

His head bent a little to the side in thought. "I would've said nineteen, maybe twenty."

She laughed. "I would've guessed you at twenty-five."

His eyebrow quirked. "Why so old?"

She shrugged. "I dunno, just …." And her answer suddenly caught up with her, and it made her bite her lower lip and look away from his gaze. That perky feeling in her chest suddenly curled up and died.

Considering how her enthusiasm suddenly fell, he turned (exaggeratedly slow just so Touya wouldn't jump him, although the younger was eyed during the whole movement) draping his arm over the seat and watching her. When she caught his gaze she felt her cheeks burn for the second time that hour … damnit …

He didn't even ask – he just raised his eyebrows for a moment.

Sakura hesitated, before answering quietly. "Because … in those tapes … those just aren't things a nineteen year old should …. would … know how to do."

Li lowered his head, breaking their gaze, and rested his head on his arms for a moment. He didn't look angry or disgusted at the comment … just as if he was thinking on it.

They were quiet again after that. Sakura's chest felt as if it had been punched in for saying such a thing, making him seem like a freak, and she was pretty sure she hadn't breathed until he turned to face forward again. Thank god it was dark in the car, except for the overhead lights above the rearview mirror – she ducked her head against the window as she waited for her blush to disappear.

Maybe she wasn't a great speaker. She obviously couldn't censor her thoughts for present company …. Still. She had felt very natural, until she screwed up. Was it because she was getting a crush? Or maybe, because they were stuck in this mess because of her snooping, she felt like she needed to get along with everyone? Or maybe she just hadn't had enough life experience with people her own age to talk to …

_Well that's one plus to this, _she thought as she began to tear up. _I'm not leaving any friends behind …._

8-------------8

" ….sakura. Hey."

"Hey. Sakura. Wake up."

She woke up almost violently, her head and shoulders jumping up before her eyes were open. She had been asleep? How long? Where was she? Why was she in the backseat of a car? Slowly she looked up, and saw her brother hovering over her. Reality settled in once again. Oh yeah, her new mission.

Slowly she sat up, feeling achy from the bumpy ride. Running her hands through her hair she looked up at him again. "Are we there?" she whispered tiredly.

"Yeah. C'mon."

As she began to wake up she felt the jeep shift as the trunk door opened. The sound of the metal briefcase clicking open and closed made her think he was checking that whatever was inside was still inside. Her eyes caught the time on the dashboard clock – 2:41AM. Great.

She swung her legs out the open door to get out, but obviously was not awake yet, for the moment she stepped on the ground her head began to spin, and she began to fall ….

… until a firm pair of hands grabbed her arm. She had nearly run into Li as he walked around the car, and he had grabbed her shoulder and nearly wrapped his arm around her front to keep her from falling face first into the gravel.

"You okay?" he asked.

She nodded frantically, cursing her cheeks for betraying her again – perhaps keeping a cold compress around when she was dealing with Li was in order? – and stood up slowly, leaning on the car for support. "Yeah, I'm fine," she waved him away as she held her head, still dizzy.

Li hadn't stepped away – at least, until they heard a growl from the back of the jeep. Touya had watched and was glaring at Li, who took a step back.

Sakura, too tired to put up with this anymore, groaned. "Oh for the love of god, Touya!" She stormed past him towards the house.

Burn's house was a stronghold. His actual home was built on the outskirts of Ottawa, but surrounding it was a series of walls, connected by tunnels. Only those knowing the specific route through the tunnels would be able to reach the inner courtyard that held the house. Guarding the first entrance were four guards; as Sakura approached, they stepped aside, and the first set of glass doors slid open.

Touya followed close behind, and after the sudden outburst from the sister Li thought it wise to stay behind them a few steps as they began to walk down the whitely lit hallways of the 'security facility' surrounding Burns' home. The carpets were white, the walls were partly steel and partly glass; overhead was the dark black sky.

As they neared the second set of doors (and another set of guards) Touya reached his sister and whispered to her, "Sakura, that brat is a murderer – can you really not see why I don't want you around him?"

They kept quiet as they were patted down by the next set of guards. Li stood compliantly, while Sakura fidgeted a little and Touya fussed over them wanting his briefcase. Finally arguing with them into letting him take it in, they passed the second set and Sakura spoke up without looking at either of them.

"Let me remind you why I'm in this mess, Touya. I may have hacked into the security systems, but I proved him innocent. I don't know what more to tell you."

"Because of him you are out here, instead of back at school, safe and sound where you belong!" Touya retorted. "So excuse me if I don't want you around him!"

Despite the fact that he was the subject, the third person in their group said nothing as they continued on. She couldn't see Li's face, but maybe she was sure she didn't want to. Her feelings of the last twelve hours were catching up on her again. "You mean back home in that bubble you and dad created for me?"

Just when he was about to shout Sakura stopped and turned abruptly on her heel to face her brother to yell at him. "You know what's going to make this whole mission horrible for me, Touya? The fact that I have no idea what goes on outside of the walls of my house. The fact that I have no idea how bad it is out there. I don't have anything to prepare myself, I don't have any clue what's in store. You do. You've seen some of the shit we're about to go through. You may even be desensitized from it. But it's all brand new to me and I have no idea if I can handle it. I don't know if I'll survive an ambush, I don't know if I can make a gun work." She trailed off, staring up at in her brother's speechless face. "That's what the worst part about this is, Touya. Not him," she gestured to Li. "Sometimes keeping the ugly things in life from people makes them too fragile to handle anything. And I want to prove that I'm not fragile.

Touya stared down at her for a moment in disbelief. Li said nothing.

"But … you don't …. Sakura, we told you. You're all Dad and I have. This whole … thing … is going to change you for life. It's scary out here. It could ruin you."

Sakura's expression fell to disappointment, hoping for a better answer than that. So she had nothing to say. She shook her head and turned around, continuing to walk.

When her brother stared at her silently, she turned and continued to walk.

It wasn't until they reached the third set of doors when someone spoke.

"She's right, you know."

Touya, in the middle of another patdown, looked over at the boy in disgust. "What?!"

Sakura, who was through the doors, looked back in surprise.

When Li made it through he looked back at the lieutenant as he finished up. "It's a part of life, dealing with the ugliness of the world. A kid has to learn how to ride a bike so he can scrape his knee and realize it's not so bad. A girl has to have her heart broken to realize that he was a jerk and that she deserves better. Without feeling any pain in the past, it just makes everything you meet horrific."

Sakura's jaw gaped a little from this wise insight. Li looked over at her to tell her, "And you know if there's an ambush that you listen to me or your brother, despite the fact that he's a dick, okay?"

"Did I fucking ask your opinion?!"

Sakura ignored her brother, and continued to stare at Li. His expression was …. Well, honest. Despite how bright his eyes were, she could almost read that they weren't hiding anything from her. She bit her lip and nodded in response. He nodded and began to walk down the hall again.

It wasn't until Touya passed her muttering curses under his breath that she realized she was standing still. She ran to catch up to the pair, and they walked for a bit until Touya interjected. "You listen to ME in an ambush, alright?"

Li scoff. "You're unbelievable," the boy said.

Sakura rolled her eyes. "Touya, I'm going to listen to whoever is closest at the time, alright?" She began to walk past the two again, eager to get to the other two members of their entourage so she would have some normal people to talk to. "Remember – Ormsby trusts him with Burns' life! I think you need to start to, too!"

Touya laughed. "And I think you're a little _too _trusting-"

This was going to be so much worse than she thought, alright …

She came up to the final exit, the one that lead into the courtyard of the facility when a sickening smell entered her nostrils. But her pace was too fast to stop and wonder what it was. She started to round the corner –

The plush white carpet was soaked in blood. Her shoes landed in the pool of the dead guard's fluid, making a soft flowing sound as the blood swelled around her shoes. The smell when she had rounded the corner had hit her gag reflex. Her gaze drifted from the growing stain on the carpet up to the body that had sunk against the wall, his face ripped apart to the bones -

"Don't look," Li instantly covered her eyes from behind, and the suddenly contact back to reality made her gasp loudly. She hadn't breathed when she had seen the body, and with the sudden rush of breath something else filled her every fibre: fear. Her shoulders began to heave as she began to hyperventilate, the image still fresh in spite of his hand.

Bracing her shoulder with his free arm, Li pulled her back from the doorway, then peered towards it. From that exit it was only thirty-some yards to the house. All her could make out between that space was the few lanterns that lit up the cement walkway.

Remembering the shivering girl in front of him, he finished, "They're not gone yet."

This only caused her to let out a whimper. She felt weak, scared, she wanted to go home, now, oh god –

Li pressed the girl against the wall, facing her away from the door and looked back at Touya to say, "Please tell me you've got some fancy pistols in that fancy briefcase."

Touya, who hadn't really seen what was around the corner but knew it wasn't good, only nodded and kneeled down to open his case. Inside were a number of guns and knives, in different shapes and sizes. He pulled out one of the guns, before eyeing his scared sister, and remembered what she last said to him. Reluctantly, he pulled a second gun from the case and tossed it to him.

Li caught it with ease and cocked it before peering around the corner again, looking for any movement. He almost stepped forward before taking a look back at Sakura. She had her hands up, covering her mouth as she tried to steady her breathing. Her eyes were closed but she looked in pain.

Li looked at Touya. "Hand me one of those knives."

Touya's eyes narrowed. "What?"

"Would you rather she didn't have anything?" Li asked accusingly.

Again, reluctantly he handed Li one of the five inch blades from the pouch. Li, seeing she wasn't about to snap out of it soon, snapped the sheath of the blade to her belt loop. She didn't even flinch when he touched her. Finally, Li took her hands down from her mouth and lowered his face to hers. "Sakura."

She opened her eyes, and they only grew wider to see him in such close proximity to her. He took one of her hands and placed it on the handle of the blade. She gasped a little when she felt it there.

"If anything jumps you, you use this, alright?" he told her, and she nodded, although didn't admit that she wasn't sure she'd be very useful with a knife anyway. "Just stay between me and your brother and you'll be fine."

She nodded again, a little more controlled this time. He kept eye contact for one more second, as if to make sure she was calm enough to do this, before turning and stepping carefully on the bloodied carpet. Touya stepped behind his sister … and she reached back to grab his hand. He squeezed it in response.

They took a few steps until the sliding doors, despite the broken glass, opened when they activated the motion censors. Glass crackled and a few more shards fell. Cursing, Li flew back against the wall, hoping whatever was outside wouldn't notice the movement. The siblings followed …. And after a few moments Li scooted closer to the open doorway. He tilted his head out into the doorway and looked out into the darkness. When nothing made a sound for a while, he waved them forward. "Quick – and stay low."

They sprinted across the walkway, half bent as they ran – which surprised Sakura, because she was pretty sure she couldn't feel her legs anymore. Nonetheless Touya never let go of her hand, keeping her close until they reached the front door of the house.

Everything she had been thinking in the car on the way here had hit her. This was it. She was officially in the war zone – her bubble had popped and she was exposed to it now. A sudden image of the exposed skull on the dead guard's body flew into her mind and she closed her eyes quickly to try to erase it. This only caused her to trip on the first step leading to the house, but Touya quickly hoisted her up to stand again.

She was exposed to the enemy, who were in this house at that very moment. They _were _trying to win this war, they _didn't_ want Burns' alive to tell the truth, and they would _not _stop until he was dead. And if anyone got in their way … the guard at the door was a sign as to what would happen. She shook her head frantically again – no. Crying won't help – vomiting, like she wanted to, wouldn't help either – all she could do was listen. Listen to her brother and listen to Li. It was all she could do to keep from going crazy.

The front door had been broken in, and as the two leaned against the entrance Li motioned for them to stay, before treading soundlessly over the threshold. Sakura watched in amazement – only to remember that she had seen him do this a dozen times before, thanks to those videos. But seeing it in real life … wow.

Once Li had entered the foyer, his gun at the ready, his eyes scanned what he could see. He could tell no one was here – Pymetrians made too much noise to sit in silence, waiting for their prey. So the house would be clear … except that also meant that they had come, gone, and done their work already. He waved the two to follow him, as he slowly continued through the house , until he reached the kitchen.

Sakura watched his shoulders sag suddenly and heard him murmer, "Shit."

Fearing the worst, Sakura let go of her brothers hand and ran forward to where Li was – and gasped.

Burns was lying sprawled out on the floor. His white dress shirt was almost entirely covered in blood – his blood – and he seemed dead … except he was panting.

Sakura jumped around the kitchen island to where he lay and knelt beside him, examining his wound. A cry escaped her lips when she saw it – a massive hole, far, far too big to be made from a bullet.

Burns panted, and looked slowly up at her, smiling weakly. " … hey … "

Sakura looked at him and shook his head. "We came late – I'm Sorry-"

" … sok … informa … information … in .. "

Touya, whose eyes had been darting around the room looking for hidden threats, heard this and looked down at Burns. "Where?" he asked quickly.

He didn't speak, but moved his hand to point behind them. Li turned to see the living room, and held his gun at the ready as he entered it.

Sakura had turned to watch Li go, but when Burns' hand grasped hers she brought her attention back to him. He looked pleadingly up at her.

"… take … take care … of him?" he asked, but before she could do anything, his hand went limp … and fell from her grasp.

Truly confused, Sakura thought it over – take care of him? And suddenly it clicked.

Jumping from the floor and rushing past Touya, she slid into the living room and started looking around frantically. She heard her brother and the other member of their trio ask her what was going on, but she couldn't answer. She wracked her brain, trying to remember where he liked to hide the few times she had been in the house with him –

Finally she fell to the floor and pressed her cheek against the floor to look underneath the couch – there he was.

Li saw where she was looking, realized what she did and crossed the room to the couch, meeting Sakura to pull it back from the wall.

He was crouched behind the couch, his blonde head buried in his arms as he sobbed quietly, his little body shaking. He couldn't have been older than five. And his father was dead.

Sakura crawled between the space and slowly brushed the child's hair. "Kero?" she whispered.

The little boy jerked his head up, and his gold eyes tearfully looked up at her. When his mind realized he recognized her from before, he burst into loud sobs and held his arms out towards her desperately.

The sight of it made her tear up, and she scooped the boy up in her arms, standing slowly as she held him. His hands clung desperately at her neck as he sobbed into her shoulder. "Duh … daddy … " he whimpered.

"I'm so sorry, Kero," she whispered to him, rubbing his back.

They were silent for a moment, only the sounds of Kero and Sakura's tears filling the room …..

Until they heard a muffled boom in the distance.

The two men's eyes turned towards the door. "What was that?" Touya asked.

Another sounded – only closer. It wasn't like something was approaching them inside the house, though … it was though it was an explosion.

Li noticed this before the lieutenant did. "We need to leave. Now."

Touya figured it out when a third explosion sounded in the distance, and this time Sakura lifted her head too. As Touya began to lead the way out, Li turned to Sakura to make her walk in front of him … only to notice something on the boys arm. He pulled it carefully from Sakura's neck and stared at his wrist. "Kero," he asked. "What is this?"

Sakura looked down wondering what the hell he was talking about – until she saw what he did. A fresh scar, very fresh, a perfect two inch line across his skin.

Kero sniffled for a moment before answering. "Duh .. daddy put …. chip in … told me … keep it safe."

Li's eyes widened. "A microchip?"

Touya mirrored his expression. "Burns expected this to happen then."

Li nodded as Sakura looked up in surprise. "Everything he worked on is on that chip then?" he suggested.

Sakura stared down at the boy in her arms in shock: the key to saving the world didn't rest in a man anymore… it rested in a tiny chip in the arm of a child. "Oh god," she muttered.

Something crashed in the kitchen behind them – and next thing Sakura knew Li had shoved her to the ground and shots were flying through the air.

~*TBC*~

Next Chapter: Where v.2.0 really starts to take control, totally different storyline … and Aikou writes an action scene! GASP. God I hope it works!


	7. November 10th, 2138

Me and Action Sequences equals phhhhhhhhbbbbtttt. So I hope I did a decent job!

------------------------------------

Sakura fell hard to the floor and Kero nearly toppled out of her arms. She stared up wildly at her brother and Li; they were shooting through the doorway that she was just standing in, into the kitchen – and returning fire was raining down on them. A roar rang out: the roar of the enemy.

She winced and covered her ears with her hands as Kero cried out in fear. It was such a sharp, gut-wrenching squeal that it hurt to hear it. She hadn't heard a Pymetrian cry since the day the war broke out, back during the "peace conference" ... and then she realized that Pymetrians were in the house, they were who killed Burns, and they had waited around to finish the job.

She and the child were out of harm's way – for now. Who knew how many of the aliens were in the kitchen, in comparison to her brother and the assassin. Instinctively she scooted back on the floor, bringing Kero with her, until her back hit the wall, now trapped in the corner.

"Kero, behind me," she told him, and the whimpering boy sat between her and the wall – once he was hidden she began thinking of what to do, besides being a human shield. Her eyes darted around the room, on Touya, on Li, on the furniture ... there was nothing! But when her eyes fell again on Li, she remembered he had given her something – somewhere – she felt on her belt – the knife! She pulled it out, sitting on her knees and holding it out at the ready.

The deafening sound of bullets flying through the air at such a short distance made her head ache. With each round she flinched, but held her ground. She couldn't cower out of this – this was real. This wasn't just something that could happen, it _was_ happening. She tried to focus on the boys – slowly, step by step Touya and Li were gaining ground towards the doorway. Her eyes fell on Li again – he was steady, sure of his shots, not ducking behind anything for cover. She thought back to the tapes she had seen of him: he was the same in those, too.

Li suddenly flinched, and a line of blood appeared on his jeans. She gasped and her shoulders tensed – but she saw that he had only been grazed. He took another two steps forward in retaliation. Her shoulders fell a little in relief, and thought back to the tapes. He had bit shot at in those videos – would he ever fall? Maybe he wouldn't ... like Superman ...

The boys reached the doorway, and at that moment Touya looked at her and nodded behind him, telling her to move back. She nodded, lowering the knife to one hand and turning to grab Kero's arm, bracing her legs to run for it. Li took one step into the kitchen –

And something jumped him.

She fell back against the wall when she saw him and a brownish green blur fly into the living room, tackling him to the ground. With wide eyes she saw the alien pin him to the ground, grasping a mangled (but sharp) spear and aiming at Li's heart. With all of his strength he pushed that clawed hand away from him as best as he could, his arms shaking.

Of course he wasn't Superman. He could die right now. Any of them could.

Another Pymetrian stepped in, swiping a large, clawed hand at the distracted Touya. Sakura cried out when it sliced through her brother's shirt. But that brought attention to her .... and alerted the next Pymetrian.

It turned its head towards her – and this was the first time Sakura had seen one so close.

They were tall creatures – at least six foot five – and they were wirey beings. Their skin was a pale, pale mix of blue and green smushed together like a rash. Their eyes were wide and black, their teeth gnarled and constantly sneering. And as this one stared at her his sneer seemed to turn to a grin before he jumped at her.

She nearly broke down crying when he did – but thankfully, some tiny part of her brain told her, _STAB HIM! _

As it jumped at her she aimed her knife best as she could to wherever it's heart could be – and thrusted before he reached her. It wailed painfully, taking a swipe at her arm. She twisted her blade and the creature cried out again. She poised her foot to push it away and off of her so she could take another hit, but it was starting to get to it's feet when she did, grabbing her foot instead. She fell to the floor, exposing Kero for the first time, who screamed. Sakura bent to slice the Pymetrians arm, but when she did it held his own clawed hand up to thrust into her chest –

Until Li slammed his body against it, sending it into the wall. The creature cried out again, letting go of Sakura's leg – she saw that Li had his own dagger stabbing into the side of the creature. It began to fall limp; Li shoved it away from him to let it die on the floor, and then turned to Sakura. "Grab him!" he shouted.

She didn't need to be told twice. Getting to her feet and picking up the boy she saw Li pull out a round puck from his jacket, press the button on it, and throw it into the kitchen. Touya, his right arm hanging a little lopsided, reached Sakura and they both ran out of the room, Li to the rear. The puck exploded in the kitchen, sending half the house up into flames just as they were running out the door.

The group didn't speak – they ran. Across the grass, through the halls, past the dead guards, faster and faster, can't even think about stopping.

They reached the van and Touya jumped into the front seat, his good arm starting the car. Sakura dove in with Kero into the back seat. Li had barely shut his door before Touya hit the gas and they were speeding down the road.

Touya cursed under his breath as he drove. Li, after quickly stripping the belt off his own pants and tightening it around the leg where the bullet had grazed him, started shouting instructions – turn all the car lights off, drive in the ditch, go faster. Kero, in her lap, was crying hysterically and clutching Sakura's torn shirt with all of her might. But in spite of all the noise, of all the racket ... she couldn't hear a thing. Only her heart pounding loudly, throbbing, and oddly fast in her ears. She stared out into the space ahead of them, numbly rubbing the childs back with her hand in an attempt to calm him.

It was when Li suddenly jerked back in his seat, looking oddly at her, that she snapped out of it. He mouthed something – was he talking to her before? Was she alright, he wondered? Again, she numbly nodded.

She didn't exactly hear what happened next, but felt it. There was a rumbling beneath the car, caused by something far in the distance. Touya's gaze instantly shifted to his rear-view mirror. Li whipped around in his chair to stare out the back, and Sakura realized she should too.

Instead of the blackness of an early morning, a boiling red and orange glow silhouetted the horizon. Ottawa was the opposite direction from them.

Sakura drew a shakey breath ....and then heard the rumble above them in the sky. Her hearing had started to come back in the silence. Planes thundered across the sky above them, heading back towards the city .... to bomb it or save it, they didn't know.

And with that the car erupted into shouts again.

"We've got to get to Toronto – I'm heading the wrong way – shit," Touya started to turn the wheel.

Li grabbed the wheel to keep it straight. "Don't you fucking dare."

Touya shoved him away with his shoulder – which was also the same shoulder that was injured – and after wincing he said, "Our next checkpoint is Toronto, dipshit! That's where we need to be goi-"

"If you head to Toronto this car is going to be blown to bits. We need to get to a clinic-" Li argued.

"YEAH, And there's ONE at the MILITARY BASE in TORONTO."

"FUCK TORONTO!" Li slammed his hand on the dashboard for emphasis, which only made Kero wail louder. "You don't think they know what we have in this car?! You don't think they won't bomb every unmarked black jeep that heads towards that base?! We can't go there!"

Sakura's heart sank. He was right. The Pymetrians would know that they made it away safely with Kero. They would know that the group would have to stop somewhere for medical attention. They knew the group would head to the military bases. Nowhere within a day's drive would be safe.

(Un)fortunately Touya realized this too. With that he pulled the car to the side of the road and put it into park, turning to the boy beside him. He sat for a moment, thinking, and the car was silent except for the distant booming of a destroyed Ottawa in the distance and Kero's sobs. Sakura stared at her brother; he was silent, breathing deeply, his shoulders sagged. She bit her lip, feeling bad for him. Li was right, but could Touya, for once, ignore his pride and ask for help?

Finally the general turned to Li and asked point-blank, "Where the fuck do you suggest we go, then?"

Sakura let out a sigh of relief. Li didn't show anything. "Where are we heading?"

"Right now we're on the ON-417 to Montreal."

"Good. Keep course."

Touya's jaw dropped. "Fuck you! That's back-tracking!"

And that one moment of maturity disappeared and they were back to behaving like children.

Sakura sighed as she watched the two bicker. Her brother wanted to stay on course, in spite of the valid points that Li was making. But Li's suggestion to go in the opposite direction, to another clinic somewhere else ... it irked her. What was he trying to play at? Her eyes drifted down to her brother's shoulder, and she nearly gagged. His shoulder was loose, obviously dislocated, and was hanging limply out of its socket. They needed to get to some kind of clinic, doctor or even just a bloody nurse, and soon.

Her own arm was getting sore from holding Kero. He was quieter than he had been earlier, and she hoped he would sit without making a fuss. She never babysat in her life, and realized only now that regardless of the fact, she would probably be the babysitter of the trip. The thought almost made her moan, but the ache on her arm made her decide otherwise. Grunted, she shifted the boy onto the seat next to her. "Shh, Kero, calm down," she muttered as she sat back to relax a little – but her left arm still hurt. And it was aching. Burning, almost. Confused, she looked down and her jaw dropped.

She hadn't even registered any pain when the Pymetrian swiped at her arm – she should have. There was a five inch long gash on her bicep. It was bleeding down her arm, and had been for quite some time. There must have been something on the alien's claws – white foam was bubbling around it, causing the burning sensation she was only just now starting to feel.

The fear from earlier hadn't disappeared; it had sat on the back burner during the fight. Now it was back with a force. She began to whimper like a child, as the burning sensation swept up her arm, but all she could do was stare at it. Suddenly her nerves were on fire and she cried out.

Despite the bickering, Li heard her. He turned to see what was going on, saw the girl tearing up, saw the bubbling gash and then cursed under his breath. Quickly he hopped out of his seat, running to the trunk. Touya was shouting at him as he opened the door to search through the back space, but he didn't listen. After finding what he was looking for he came to Sakura's side of the car, opened the door and slid in beside her.

As much as she hated to act like a child, she was crying. She was Kero's babysitter – who was going to have to babysit her? But when Li had opened her door she came back to her senses and her sobs slowed.

Before he opened the med kit (he had grabbed from the trunk) Li flicked the overhead lamp on to get a better look. Touya was now turned all the way in his seat, no longer looking defensive or agitated – concerned ... no. He had the same fear in his eyes that Sakura had, and it wasn't helping. "What is it? Sakura? What-"

"You're going to continue on the 417 until you see the turnoff for Hawkesbury." Li dug through the huge red bag for a moment before pulling out a wound kit. "Once you see the first barn house, you pull in. Got it?"

Touya's eyebrows narrowed as the boy took out a vial and a needle. "What-"

"Or did you want to take her on a five hour drive to Toronto while the infection runs through her bloodstream?!" Li finally looked up, glaring into Touya's eyes.

There was a moment of silence after the mention of infection. Li was staring Touya down, knowing he would win the argument, and for a moment Touya's pride overcame everything us. But after the moment, Sakura whimpered, and suddenly she was staring at her brother. He saw the tears in her eyes and the overwhelming urge to protect his little sister finally told his pride to sit down and shutup. "Dammit." He faced front, pulled the car off the shoulder, kept the lights off, and sped on down the road.

After watching the driver for a moment to ensure he was following his instruction, Li turned back to the girl, oblivious to her emotional state. "This will tide you over till we get there," Li explained as he prepped the vial. "It's just morphine."

But she barely heard him. Her heart was throbbing in her ears again, her breathing fast and shallow – all she had heard was 'infection' and 'bloodstream.' What was this cut doing to her?

Li kept going as he unpacked what he needed. "The infection's going to keep spreading – I don't have the drugs for it. But I can slow it down for now. They can help you at the clinic."

It was going to keep spreading. She was going to get worse. She felt feverish, sluggish, and that only made her breath harder, which only made her heart beat faster, which would make her blood pump faster, which would spread the infection -

He opened up a sealed medicated pad and wiped her wound clean, drawing the foam away for a moment before pulling out another medicated pad and pressing it against the wound, holding it there. When he reached for the bandage roll to hold the pad in place was when he noticed. He paused for a second to stare at her heaving chest, the sweat on her brow, the tears still pouring down her face. "Sakura."

She didn't hear him. She began to whimper again.

"Sakura, I need you to calm down. It'll get worse if you don't."

Her shoulders shook as she began to cough on her tears, gulping for more air only to choke on it.

He shook her shoulder lightly, leaning closer to say softly. "Sakura. Please."

Her other hand reached up to her gaping mouth as she sobbed. Li bit his lip ...

...before he leaned down and pressed his lips to her shoulder.

At the sudden hot, wet contact she jerked her head towards him, her breath caught for a moment. He stared up at her again, making sure it worked. His burning eyes bore up at her from a closer proximity this time; she took a deep, slow breath to calm herself.

His hands began to move again, wrapping the medi-pad against her arm with the bandage. He worked swiftly but carefully, making it tight but not too tight.

She watched him with wide eyes, her brain running at a million miles a minute, but not on her health. On him. She had known Yukito for years and all he had down was kiss her cheek or lips in a quick, efficient manner. Yet she knows this boy for two days and the kiss he gives is one of the most intimate she has ever received.

_Fuck my life._

_-------------------------_

It took an hour until they saw a sign that indicated an exit to Hawkesbury. The car had been quiet with the exception of Li reminding her to drink her water. Kero was even silent.

They approached a fork in the road with a green exit sign informing them that Hawkesbury was two kilometres down the road. Li finally moved – causing Sakura to jump at the movement – leaning forward to tell Touya to turn there. They continued on a dark, gravel road for another ten minutes, passing fields and patches of trees. The moon was so bright that night that the fields were cast in a bright iridescent glow.

Finally, the arch of a barn began to appear above a hill. Li told them this was it. Touya approached it cautiously, slowly drawing up to the old barn. It was abandoned, for sure ... the paint had been flaking for years and there were a few holes in the walls.

Li told him to stop just fifteen feet of the door, letting himself out of the car. The three sat and watched as he ran up to the barn, putting his weight into the door as it shoved aside.

"Sakura?"

At the sound of her name Sakura looked at her brothers gaze in the rearview mirror. "How are you holding up?"

She nodded slowly. "Okay."

He nodded stiffly, but he had been watching her appearance the whole ride. A sheen of sweat had grown across her skin. Her breathing was growing deeper and slower with each breath. She seemed slow, or even weak: Li's reminder to continue drinking from the water canteen may be because the bottle would seem heavier even after she drank from it.

Li waved the car into the barn once he opened the door. Touya did so, but not without grasping the gun that was on the front seat, wrapping his fingers tentatively around the glock. As far as he was concerned his only priorities were in the car with him – if that kid pulled something ...

Once inside, he parked the car. In reality it wasn't a big barn; it held the SUV but not much else. Could have been a tractor house, really.

Li shut the doors behind them and Touya turned off the car, turning in his seat to watch the boy's every move. Sakura did too, only more sluggishly.

Li walked to the side of the car, stepping through old hay to reach the wall of the barn. He kneeled and brushed away some of the hay. The trio couldn't see what he was doing, but they heard his voice.

"Syaoran Li, 00-HK001, three guests, immediate medical assistance."

To their surprise a voice responded.

"Ontario code confirmation?"

"87-ON819."

"Confirmed. Stand back."

Suddenly there was a whirring noise filling the barn. They almost all jumped – Li ran back to stand beside the car. Sakura looked up at him, confused. What was this place? She thought they were going to a clinic?

And suddenly the floor began to sink.

Touya cursed loudly but Li assured them to sit tight. Sakura unrolled her window as best she could to look at the floor. It seemed they were on this huge metal platform, sinking down into the ground ... after three feet the floor entered the underground room; rays of bright light shone up at them. Sakura gaped for a second, before she could see where they were heading...

The platform took them down another twenty feet, revealing an underground base dug out entirely from the dirt beneath the barn. There were at least three stories deep. Tanks, cars and armed personal ran around like mad. The thing that worried Sakura was that these were not United Nations Personal. They were something completely different.

_Fuck my life._

_---------------------_

_TO BE CONTINUED ......_

_----------------------_

Sorry for the FML references – it just seems that's what Sakura would be thinking at the time! And also sorry for the long delay, I just finished exams at school and now have a summer of FREEDOM! I hope you enjoyed the chapter and please, review!

ALSO. For those asking about the first chapter (aka the "one shot" that I had dreamed, the thing that started it all) YES, I took it down, BECAUSE I'm going to make it a REAL chapter later on. I didn't like doing it Quentin-Tarentino style. But it's safe on my computer (and in printed paper) so don't worry, it'll be back!


	8. November 10thcont

The one thing Sakura noticed after taking the entire compound in was the atmosphere: tense. Panicked. Urgent. Directly behind the platform a line of radio operators were talking frantically with codes and taking orders. The lines of tanks that were at the edge of the compound were being dismantled and broken apart as fast as possible. Another line of old public transport buses behind them were being filled with supplies and soldiers.

The most unexpected thing about it was the fact that none of these soldiers, operators or medics looked like soldiers, operators or medics. They were all in their street clothes. The soldiers simply had Mk-47's draped over their shoulders. The operators had headsets. The medics wore simple armbands bearing a large red cross. The lack of visual unity but the extreme presence of supreme organization was the most confusing thing she had ever seen. The United Nations were the complete opposite – they all looked the same and their jobs were recognizable, but every action needed to be approved by their higher-up. If the UN were doing whatever these soldiers were doing, it'd be mass chaos.

It wasn't until Li opened the car door on her did she snap out of it. She had been leaning so far out the window that the sudden give of it would have sent her flat on her face – that is, if Li wasn't waiting to catch her. She fell against him and the amazement of new surroundings fell once again to her infection. Her fever hit her like a punch in the face; her arm was so numb she couldn't lift it if she tried; and her vision was getting blurry.

Li scooped her up out of the car seat at the same moment that a few of those soldiers ran up to them. Two of them had on the medical armbands. "You said you needed assistance?" one asked.

"She's been infected by a Pymetrian, just over an hour ago," Li answered without missing a beat. "He's dislocated his shoulder, and the kid has some cuts and scrapes."

"An hour ag- shit. C'mon!"

Everything started to blank out now. The infection was spreading too fast. Sakura's head began to roll into Li's shoulder over and over again, and it took a moment to realize they were running. Li was talking to her, but she could barely hear, let alone answer. She was trying to focus on staying awake.

She was lying on a bed – no, an itchy, canvas cot. The back of the scissors were cold as they brushed against her skin as the bandage was cut off. Someone asked if she had certain allergies. Touya answered. Her breath started to grow more rapid as the infection came closer to her heart: in a desperate attempt to fight the infection it pumped faster, harder than before. She began panting, feeling the burn rush up her arm and into her chest. It was such a fire, a torch to her nerve, making her feel sick and rotting after it touched her nerves. Her mouth opened and she let out a shout of agony. Kero sobbed. The medics began speaking frantically. Someone grabbed her hand. And something poked her arm once ... twice ... three times.

And it was going away.

Her heart calmed, the burning cooled ....... and she blanked out.

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. If this were a novel, there would be a page break here. As there is not, we have annoying (.) till I say "go" :P

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8------------------------------8

"FUCK!"

.... only to wake up ten minutes later.

Sakura opened her eyes fully with a snap. She saw the roof of a green canvas tent. It was dark under there, but not too dark to work. After entering the compound in a daze she was suddenly very aware of her surroundings.

Whatever was injected into her skin was spreading quickly over the infection, like a cold shower on a sweltering day. She blinked a few times to clear her vision.

To her right Touya was sitting on the cot, shirtless, while one medic held him steady and the other finished popping his shoulder back into place. He was cursing them left and right but they looked like they weren't even listening to him. She lowered her gaze. Kero, who was whimpering at her bed side, let out his own bawl of relief when her eyes met his.

"That worked quick."

Another medic sat down on the other side of her bed, causing her to turn her head ... and suddenly felt a little woozy from doing so. She paused, humming to herself in regret over the action, and looked up at the medic, the same one who had injected her earlier. Behind him stood Li, his tense shoulder's finally relaxed, and she realized he was the one who spoke.

The medic laughed. "Well, we did give her three times the recommended dose. I wouldn't sit up for a while, honey."

Sakura closed her eyes for a moment and nodded very slowly. "That's a good idea," she mumbled. She began to watch the medic wrap a new bandage on her arm, and then at Li who was standing beside him. All of her senses were coming back to her: it felt like she had been asleep for the last hour and had no recollection of what happened. Except, when she stared up at Li's face her eyes gazed at his lips and remembered his sudden kiss ... and with that she drew her head away. Thankfully Kero bawled again and she could focus on him.

She smiled empathetically at the crying toddler, and patted his head with her good hand. "It's okay, Kero. I'm sorry for scaring you."

He sniffled. "Don't do that again."

She nodded and managed to smile at him. "Yes, sir."

Li turned to Touya. "She'll be fine – get your arm checked out-"

"SYAORAN?!"

The boy nearly jumped and turned in the direction of the shout. Sakura attempted to sit up to see who it was, but the doctor – and the sudden realization that her bad arm now had the consistency of jello – told her to stay put for a while. She didn't need to sit up – a girl, who had to have been running at full speed, came into her peripheral vision and hugged Li tightly. And for the first time since their journey started, Li was smiling.

"Chiharu!" he exclaimed, hugging her back enthusiastically.

"You dumbass!! Where the fuck were you?!" She cried into his shoulder.

Sakura blinked in confusion ... and to her disappointment her mind wanted to know who this girl was, and what she meant to Li. She bit her lip in frustration afterward.

The girl, Chiharu, slid down from holding his neck as Li answered. "Never mind that – what's the status on Ottawa?"

The girl was pretty; she had chocolate brown eyes and two ponytails hanging out from beneath an old cap. She seemed to be wearing an engineer's jumpsuit, covered in grease and other stains that Sakura couldn't identify. But despite her beauty, her face fell at Li's question.

"Oh god – they have to have cloaking devices, they have to! Every other attack has been from the sea, we've been able to see them coming, but this was out of nowhere! Even if it was from the north, one of the stations in Manitoba should have picked it up!"

"Chiharu," Li spoke sternly, placing his hands on her shoulders. "Focus. Ottawa."

Her face hadn't fallen before – now it had. "Oh Syaoran," she nearly teared up. "It's gone. It's burning, all of it. You can see it from the surface. "

Li's eyes widened. Touya's mouth gaped before saying, "What?! Ottawa before New York?! Or even Atlanta?! "

Chiharu nodded to him before staring back at Li. "It's the most northern attack so far. Everyone up here was too relaxed. If we had the same defence here as we do in New York or Seattle-"

Li squeezed the hands on her shoulders. "Chiharu, it wouldn't have made a difference. They would've reached it regardless."

After a moment, she nodded slowly, biting her lip. Li's hands slid down her arms before falling to his sides. "What are we doing here?"

She was silent for another moment, composing herself. When she looked back up Sakura recognized that same calm, determined look that she sees in Li's eyes so often. "Evacuating. We were far too close for this, and you know the military's going to move in and try to establish some kind of base or fortress or whatever. We depart at 0800."

Li nodded. "I see. Where'd you get the buses?"

Chiharu shrugged. "We've got some guys. It's military procedure to evacuate citizens in public transit buses – we figured we'd need these somewhere down the line, so we got a few." Before Li could as his next question, she answered it for him. "We're heading to Montreal."

"Good. Toronto will be over flooded with survivors and personal, and it'll just be the next target. Mind if we catch a ride?"

"Of course ... that is, if you explain what's going on," she peered around the boy to stare at Sakura, Touya and Kero with a quirked eyebrow and a smile. "Quite the band of traveling players you have, here."

Li sighed, running his hand through his hair. "It's a long story. And top secret."

"You're atoning for your sins by playing bodyguard."

The pair of old friends stared down at the girl on the bed. Sakura, who had been resting her eyes, looked up to see him glaring and Chiharu staring at her with wide eyes. "You said it was a long story. I just made it a short story."

Li glared at her, but Chiharu grinned. "Oh, I like her."

Once every cut and scrape had been taken care of, the only thing the trio could do was wait. They had nothing to pack, none of them were really in the right shape (nor had the knowledge) to dismantle the tanks or help medically ... they simply had to sit. And wait.

Sakura pulled her new sweater tighter around her body. Kero sat beside her, head down, still sniffling here and there. He hadn't exactly stopped since they'd found him. But he had at least becoming quieter, less constant, and he wasn't talking much.

Touya's arm was in a sling for the moment, letting his shoulder settle after being reset. He watched the crowds wander back and forth aimlessly, not saying anything to his sister.

All the silence was giving Sakura too much time to think ....

8----------------8

8----------------8

I know it's because none of us know what we're doing. I know that we're all a little medically handicapped and won't be of much use anyway. I know that.

But I feel completely fucking useless right now.

My eyes wander over to a group of girls my age on the far side of the compound. Chiharu is with them. They're sorting out the crates of food, perishables, non-perishables, things that can be with the crowds on the bus, things that need to be frozen in the portable coolers ...

I bit my lip. Would I even know how to do that?

I know how to dress for a spring ball. I know how to dress for a winter ball. I ... I think I know how to sew a button. I know how to properly greet foreign dignitaries from France, Africa and London. I know how to write an invitation for a dinner party.

My life is such a ... novelty.

My eyes started to burn again and I desperately wanted to choke back tears. If I wanted to look as pathetic as possible, I would cry freely. But not in front of these people. Not like this.

Chiharu suddenly sat on my other side. "You should go look outside."

I had to swallow before I could ask. "What?"

"Outside," she said again. She motioned to a nearby corner of the compound. A few people had just walked down the stairs, shaking their heads. "Those stairs take you to the top. You can see the city burn from here. It's not .... amusing in any way, but it's still .... something you need to see."

I gulped. Did I want to see this? I knew I had to get some fresh air. I looked at Touya. He nodded. "Only for a few minutes. "

With that, I stood and crossed to the entryway. Little did I know Li was watching me leave.

8---------------8

I didn't know what I was expecting, persay. It was exactly as the others described it, yet I knew it was a sight I wouldn't be able to block from my memory for a long time.

The burning orange glow in the distance separated the ground and the horizon. A distant fire ... one so massive in scale that we could see it miles upon miles away. That fire had burning homes, burning buildings, burning families –

Just as they had when the first shots were fired in Burns' kitchen, just as they had when I found out I was wounded, my eyes teared up again. I hiccupped as I tried to breathe this time. So much destruction ... I've never felt so pitiful and useless.

"Wow."

The sound of Li's voice made me jump. I turned for a split second to see him walking up the hill, standing about five feet from me. He watched the burning city in the distance. Somehow those eyes of his were cold, unfeeling .... but every once in a while his mouth twitched downwards in regret.

I turned away from him, worried he would see my tears. He didn't notice right away, muttering about how it was the right decision to head east. But I couldn't contain it any more. I hiccupped again, and felt the first of many tears slide down my cheek.

"Are ... " I braced myself when he asked. " ... are you crying again?"

I suddenly felt extreme anger – anger for how I got here today. Angry because I put myself in this mess for the sake of him and he couldn't care less.

"Yes, Li," I said in a loud, breaking voice. "I'm crying. What do you expect I do?"

His shoulders sagged like he was disappointed. "Look, if you cry over something like this how are you going to face the other obstacles-"

"LOOK, LI," I said sternly, causing him to back up for a moment. "I've had a VERY shitty day. I've shamed my father, been ripped away from him, had to KNIFE something, almost died and have just witnessed hundreds of thousands of deaths, and all because I decided to help out ONE PERSON! YOU, Li!! I CAN'T NOT CRY RIGHT NOW. I thought I was doing the right thing but it's leading me on a track to hell! And I'm sorry if it makes you think that I'm PATHETIC or COWARDLY but this is more shit than I've been built to handle! I'm not built to fight, I'm not built to protect something, I'm not built to watch this and feel nothing like you can! The one thing I can do right now is cry, so you just need to let me LET IT OUT and be done with it, alright?!"

By the end of my little speech I was shrieking, almost indecipherably, but I meant every word of it. I couldn't believe I was letting my guard down, but every word was true. I felt so useless, so vulnerable ... I fell to my knees and sobbed.

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"I have four sisters."

The randomness of this made didn't even cause me to look up at him.

"And ... in spite of that," he sighed. "I have no idea how to handle a crying woman."

My choking sobs stopped for a moment. Now that kiss from earlier made more sense. I looked up at him. He was ... squirmy. Uncomfortable. Fidgity. He stared me in the eyes, and for once I didn't see that cold soldier. I saw a kid, probably the same kid at home sitting with his sisters when they bawled over who knows what. He looked desperate.

" I can't stand it when women cry," he admitted. " I don't know what to do ... I just ... want it to stop."

I blinked a few tears away. He sat down beside me, and suddenly the stress of the day seemed to take over him. His shoulders sagged, his head in his knees, tired, quiet.

I stared at his sunken head for a moment. He was really hung up on this?

"So ... please. Please stop." He mumbled pleadingly.

And silly as it was, my tears slowed, and I was a lot quieter. I hadn't completely dried up, and was still hiccupping, but I was in a better state than I was a few moments ago. "Whuh .... " I started, but then sat quietly again to compose myself and wonder. What did I want to ask? I couldn't take my eyes off that messy brown hair.

"Why can't you ... stand it?"

He raised his head, looking haggard. But he didn't face me. "Because ... it makes me want to fix whatever's wrong. But crying won't tell me what's wrong. Words do." Now he looked me in the eye – a look so unintentionally fierce it scared my hiccups away. "So tell me."

Now I looked away quickly. In this state, locking in on his gaze would only make me blubber – from incoherency or sobs. Either way, it wouldn't be good. I stared ahead at the orange horizon.

"It's a lot of things." I said.

"Give me one." He mumbled.

"... I feel useless."

"How so?"

His voice was becoming sturdier again.

" ... sitting in that room with nothing to do ... I guess ... when I was at home, I was useless and bored. And that boredom got me here. Now, again, I am useless. Not bored. But it's still bad. "

He sighed. "Sakura, there's one thing you could be doing."

"What?"

He turned towards me, and this time I had to look him in the eye. "When I was younger, my sisters cried a lot because our parents were killed. And they kept on crying because we didn't have someone to hold us, dry our tears or tell us that things would be alright."

My jaw dropped open and I gaped at him like a goldfish. His parents were killed?! Why hasn't this come up before?! Was this why he was so cold all the time? He didn't have any other way?

Thankfully he ignored my gaping gaze and continued. "But you have a chance of being that person for someone, Sakura," he told me. "Someone else who's just lost their dad."

I bit my lip. Who had lost their dad? ..... oh. Oh god.

I jumped to my feet and ran back inside before he could say anything else.

8---------------------8

8---------------------8

Now that he looked at them, his sneakers were scuffed worse than usual.

Kero stared down at them, not in sadness but in boredom. They were old, almost worn out, but they were his favourite shoes. Converse black hightops, bought from a second-hand store. It was the first time he had ever been in a shop like that, with used things. Dad had always taken him to new stores, but he really wanted him to have Converse shoes. When they found a pair that fit, Dad had told him that the company went out of business from the war, and they didn't make these anymore. But he wanted Kero to have a pair because he had a pair as a kid, too.

Now one of the laces was broken, and the sole was almost torn up. Kero began to sniffle. This was a good day with his dad. And now his shoes were –

Before he could think anything else, Sakura rounded the corner, panting heavily from running. Touya was sitting up to scold her for overexerting herself when she was injured, but her green eyes locked onto Kero. He stared up at her, confused. Suddenly she ran forward, fell to her knees and hugged him tightly.

"It's okay, Kero," she whispered in his ear. "It'll be okay now, alright? But you can cry if you want – it's okay to cry."

Kero stared into her shoulder, and began to sniffle again. He didn't know that Sakura was talking about something else, but he was still focused on what was important.

He sniffled again. "Muh .... my shoe."

Sakura pulled back, staring at him, searching his eyes. Her own were lined with tears. "Your shoe?"

He nodded, biting his lip. "Daddy got them for me."

Sakura looked down at them and noted the broken lace, and then smiled up at him. "Don't worry, hon," she almost laughed. "We'll get you some new laces, okay?"

8------------------------------------8

TBC ................

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PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW. (i know i sound like a review-ho .... but I kind of am one XD)

Sorry for SUCH a long wait, guys. I hope this makes up for the ridiculously pointless chapter last time!!

Aikou-chan


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